Total quality management (TQM) is a comprehensive management system focusing on meeting customer needs, continuous improvement, and involving all employees. TQM uses strategies, data, and communication to integrate quality principles into an organization's culture. Key elements of TQM include quality circles for employees to identify and solve problems, statistical process control to monitor processes, and quality function deployment to transform customer demands into quality design. Companies implement TQM using approaches like following guides from quality thinkers, benchmarking models of excellence, or pursuing Deming's principles of continual improvement, breaking down barriers, and eliminating fear in the workplace. Costs associated with TQM include the cost of non-quality from prevention, correction, and failure compared to the cost of ensuring