Over the past few years, TQM has enjoyed a kind of pop status in the business field. It should be remembered, however, that continuous improvement of an existing product is not the same as innovation or development of a new product. From a competitive standpoint, a new product may quickly replace even a highly refined product. Think of the example of the highly refined audio cassette tape being completely replaced by the advent of compact disk music. Pay particular attention to p. 69.
Quality is a relative term however.
It is necessary to give customers what they want, but customers may not be willing to pay the price for quality that vastly exceed their needs. In other words, what are the consequences of meeting or not meeting a certain standard. Pay particular attention to p. 70, 78. This is not an easy task. Sometimes productivity improvement requires changes in processes, personnel, or completely new approaches to the problem.