Quality Management System: Encyclopedia II - Quality Management System -
Concept of Quality - A Historical Background

Quality Management System -
Concept of Quality - A Historical Background

The concept of quality evolved from inspection, measurement, and testing, which had been in practice for many, many years. Long ago, an artist or a sculptor took pride in his work and as a result always tried to excel in what was created. Mass production systems brought the concept of inspection by someone other than the craftsman in the first half of the 20th century.

Application of statistical control came later as a result of World War production methods. Quality Management Systems are the outgrowth of work done by W. Edwards Deming, a statistician, after whom the Deming Prize for quality is named.

Quality, as a profession and the managerial process associated with the quality function, was introduced during the second-half of the 20th century, and has evolved since then. No other profession has seen as many changes as the quality profession.

The quality profession grew from simple control, to engineering, to systems engineering. Quality control activities were predominant in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The 1970s were an era of quality engineering and the 1990s saw quality systems as an emerging field. Like medicine, accounting, and engineering, quality has achieved status as a recognized profession.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "
Concept of Quality - A Historical Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki