ITPEC FE Subject A April 2026 Question 56

Designing products and services that meet or exceed customers' expectations — customer focus is the first principle of TQM.

Total quality management makes quality the responsibility of the whole organisation. Its pillars are customer focus (quality is defined by the customer), total participation with empowered employees, cross-functional cooperation and continuous improvement.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

• •(b) — hiring staff with long experience is a recruitment policy, not a TQM principle; TQM improves quality through processes and everyone's participation
• •(c) — TQM empowers the people doing the work; preferring central decisions contradicts it
• •(d) — TQM needs departments cooperating across functions; competing independently optimises parts at the expense of the whole

Key rule: Test options against the TQM pillars (customer focus, total participation, continuous improvement, cross-functional teamwork); anything that centralises control or isolates departments contradicts them.

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