Total Quality Management Implementations and Results: Progress Update

Abstract

Three years ago research was conducted regarding total quality management (TQM) implementations in engineering and construction companies. This paper presents the second snapshot of the status of the TQM implementations in these companies. The same TQM implementation survey that was used in the initial study was sent to the same six firms—only three years later. This work shows the progress of the TQM implementations, identifies the changes in the perceptions of the six firms toward TQM, and analyzes the correlations established in the initial study This second survey provided another node of data, through which several trends and similarities were discovered and documented. The second survey found that the overall motivating reasons for implementing TQM remained essentially the same, and that most firms still believed that TQM is a good idea. The methods and effectiveness of implementing TQM, however, did vary substantially between companies over the three years. Some firms completely abandoned their TQM implementations while others achieved award-winning results.