Various management systems have also emerged as frameworks in which to implement
quality improvement. One of these is total quality management (TQM), which is a strategy
for implementing and managing quality improvement activities on an organization-wide basis.
TQM began in the early 1980s, influenced by the philosophies of W. Edwards Deming,
Joseph Juran, and others. It evolved into a broader spectrum of concepts and ideas, involving
participative organizations and work culture, customer focus, supplier quality improvement, and
many other activities to focus all elements of the organization around the quality improvement
goal. Typically, organizations that have implemented TQM employ quality councils or highlevel
teams that deal with strategic quality initiatives, workforce-level teams that focus on
routine production or business activities, and cross-functional teams that address specific quality
improvement issues.