ABSTRACT
Total quality management (TQM) is a popular movement in business, government, and not- for-profits which addresses organizations’ quality of products and productivity. Looking at a centralized approach to TQM put forward by Shiba et al. it can be seen that the basic tenets of TQM are a customer focus, continuous quality improvement, participation by all members of the company, and sharing information with other companies. 1 In order for organizations to practice TQM effectively they have to utilize quality information systems that can do many different things. First of all, for the company to focus on customers it needs to have the ability to effectively interact and communicate with customers to get feedback and to determine what the customer wants. Second, for the company to practice continuous quality improvement it needs to have a system that can track data and store it in databases as well as be able to allow for the easy exchange of ideas within the organization. It also must be easily upgraded to be able to accommodate change and growth within the organization. Third, the information system must be able to incorporate all levels of personnel in the organization through the use of communication systems, hardware, and software. Finally, the company must be able to communicate ideas with other organizations.
