Significant Historical Events That Changed
Quality and Teams
1950s through
1970s
Early 1950s: Deming,
Juran, and Feigenbaum work with Japanese
organizations
Early 1960s: Job
enrichment and QWL appear
1974: Lockheed
“finds” Japanese quality
circles
1977: International
Association of Quality Circles (IAQC), now AQP,
founded
1978: 1st IAQC
circles conference
1980s
1980: NBC airs its
white paper “If Japan Can… Why Can’t
We?”
Department of Commerce publishes the Model Uniform
Product Liability Act
First meeting of Technical Committee 176 on Quality
Assurance of the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) conducted
1981: Product
Liability Risk Retention Act attempts to reduce product
liability insurance costs
AFL-CIO announces plans to issue a manual to guide unions
in dealing with quality circles
1981-82: WQL teams
form at GM
1983: Deming videos
at MIT produced
1983-85: Tom Peters
and Joel Barker videos hit the
screens
1984: First House and
Senate resolutions for a National Quality Month are
passed, along with the first presidential proclamation
naming October as National Quality
Month
1985: NASA announces
its Excellence Award for Quality and
Productivity
1986: ISO 9000 series
of quality standards announced
Canada establishes its National Quality
Month
1987: IAQC becomes
AQP
ASQC announces the formation of the American Quality
Foundation
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
established
1988: DOD announces
implementation of TQM in its procurement
activities
1989: Self-managed
teams are “discovered”
Motorola, a winner of the Baldrige Award, requires all
eligible suppliers to apply for the award or be
dropped
Florida Power and Light is the first American company to
win Japan’s Deming Award
RAB established to accredit ISO 9000
registrars
1990s
1990: Suggestion
systems are “rediscovered”
Shingo Awards are established
1990-99: Six Sigma
spreads from Motorola to corporate
America
1995: AQP merges with
World Center for Community
Excellence
2000s
Early 2000s:
e-Learning begins to take hold
Number of virtual teams and projects grows
dramatically
2001: AQP affiliates
with ASQ
REFERENCES
- Gibbons, Steve,
“Business Experts Ponder the Past, Present, and
Future,” The Journal of Quality and
Participation, November/December
1999.
- Karabatsos, Nancy,
“Quality in Transition, Part 1: Account of the
‘80s,” Quality Progress, December
1989.
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