Editing Quality management system (section)

==Concept of quality – historical background==
The concept of a quality as we think of it now first emerged from the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Previously goods had been made from start to finish by the same person or team of people, with handcrafting and tweaking the product to meet 'quality criteria'. Mass production brought huge teams of people together to work on specific stages of production where one person would not necessarily complete a product from start to finish. In the late 19th century pioneers such as [[Frederick Winslow Taylor]] and [[Henry Ford]] recognized the limitations of the methods being used in mass production at the time and the subsequent varying quality of output. Birland established Quality Departments to oversee the quality of production and rectifying of errors, and Ford emphasized standardization of design and component standards to ensure a standard product was produced. Management of quality was the responsibility of the Quality department and was implemented by Inspection of product output to 'catch' defects.

Application of statistical control came later as a result of World War production methods, which were advanced by the work done of [[W. Edwards Deming]], a [[statistician]], after whom the [[Deming Prize]] for quality is named.  [[Joseph M. Juran]] focused more on managing for quality.   The first edition of Juran's Quality Control Handbook was published in 1951.  He also developed the "Juran's trilogy", an approach to cross-functional management that is composed of three managerial processes: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. These functions all play a vital role when evaluating quality.

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. Over this period, few other disciplines have 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.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) |url=http://prdweb.asq.org/certification/control/quality-engineer/index}}</ref>

As Lee and Dale (1998) state, there are many organizations that are striving to assess the methods and ways in which their overall productivity, the quality of their products and services and the required operations to achieve them are done.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=R.G.|last2=Dale|first2=B.G.|date=1998|title=Business process management: a review and evaluation|journal=Business Process Management Journal|volume=4|number=3|pages=214–225|doi=10.1108/14637159810224322}}</ref>