The TQM Magazine: Volume 11 Issue 2

Managing excellence: policy and strategy

Mohamed Zairi

This paper is part of a series addressing the topic of business excellence from a practical, evidence‐based approach. One of the critical aspects of being successful in a modern…

Five years with quality awards in Denmark

Kai Kristensen, Hans Jørn Juhl

In Denmark two different quality awards exist: the Danish Quality Award and the Quality Award for the Public Sector. In this paper we present the average results obtained by…

Quality in Greece: past and present

Kostas N. Dervitsiotis

Quality in Greece, as a key attribute of excellence, has deep roots and a long history. As such it helped create the Greco‐Roman civilization, which revived during the Renaissance…

Improving quality management on the basis of ISO 9000

Tat Y. Lee, Hareton K.N. Leung, Keith C.C. Chan

A comprehensive survey was conducted with a view to identifying the benefits derived by ISO 9000 certified companies in Hong Kong. It is generally agreed that the certification…

Integrated management systems: an examination of the concept and theory

G. Wilkinson, B.G. Dale

This paper relates the main findings of a literature review of integrated management systems (IMS). In general, integration has been discussed in the literature dealing with…

Large firms versus small firms ‐ do they implement CI the same way?

Ross L. Chapman, Terry R. Sloan

An Australia‐wide study of continuous improvement (CI) in manufacturing was initiated in 1996/97 by conducting a benchmarking survey examining the CI activities of medium to large…

ISO 9000: the system emerging from the vicious circle of compliance

Stanislav Karapetrovic

Since they were introduced internationally in 1987, ISO 9000 standards have been criticized for their lack of flexibility, emphasis on bureaucracy and paperwork, deficiency in…