ABSTRACT
The idea that organizations should aim to improve the quality of their products and services on a continuous basis was first taken up in Japan. During the period of post-war reconstruction in the 1950s, manufacturing industries in Japan drew on the ideas of the American, W. Edwards Deming. He argued that if an organization improved the quality of its products during the production process, costs would decrease because there would be less need for reworking. The combination of better quality and lower prices would result in an increase in the number of customers, so enabling the organization to expand and flourish.
