manufacturing and gaining statistical control of it, the customer was at the end of each assembly line diagram and constituted the single most important section of it. This point has been either ignored or obscured in many failed attempts to implement TQM.

“Business organizations can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by integrating total quality management and business process reengineering. TQM seeks continuous improvements in product/service quality over time, while BPR takes advantage of information and telecommunication technology to achieve dramatic changes in organizational processes that facilitate performance improvements. While the two management approaches both seek to enhance performance and quality, they are often perceived as complete opposites because of their dissimilar pace, time requirements and change initiatives” (Lee and Asllani 409).

Lee and Asllani however, argue that the two philosophies and approach to management control the course of the business “have many similarities and can be combined to form the ‘endless quality improvement’ management approach” (Lee and Asllani 409).

Similarities between reengineering and TQM out number differences, both; are initiated by senior management, focus on enhanced quality, seek the contribution of all employees, are team oriented, allows the blurring of pre-existing departmental boundaries, and both requires full management commitment. However there are some differences between these concepts. “Quality programs work within the frame work of a company’s existing processes and seek to enhance them by means of what the Japanese cal Kaizen, or continuous incremental improvement” (Hammer and Champy 52). The idea here is to do what you already do, however only do it better. With QTM the process is never truly completed, whereas with BPR the process can be quickly called completed. Also with QTM the process is evolutionary and utilizes a democratic management style, however with BPR more measurable results are recognized and departments do not become isolated from one another.