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Six sigma programs are raging through corporations worldwide, with some corporations citing savings in the $US billions resulting from six sigma implementation. Six sigma has both proponents and detractors with some arguing that nothing new is involved and others identifying it as revolutionary. The view espoused herein argues for six sigma as a methodology within the larger framework of total quality management – a blend of old and new in the sense that the tools of six sigma are often familiar ones, but are applied with an eye that is more strategically focused than historic use of those tools ordinarily indicates.

The interest in total quality management (TQM) has increased rapidly in recent years. Some people see TQM as something necessary to reach competitiveness but others claim TQM to be merely a management fad. We believe that there are several reasons for the different opinions about TQM. One is that the gurus, who often are seen as fathers of TQM, do not like the concept. Another one is that there are several similar names for roughly the same idea. A third one, which, maybe, is the most severe, is that there are many vague descriptions and few definitions of what TQM really is. In this paper we will discuss some of the problems with TQM and describe and discuss our own view of TQM as a management system consisting of the three interdependent components: values, techniques and tools. We strongly believe that this definition will help to understand and implement TQM.

Describes a project focusing on the experiences of implementing a third‐party certified quality system in small (maximum 50 employees) Swedish organisation. The project consisted of a questionnaire to CEOs, and then a more comprehensive case study of selected organisations. Results show that the more the CEO and employees have been involved in the implementation process, the more the system is used, that the CEO is more satisfied with the results; and quality improvements have continued after certification. Furthermore, the higher the level of education within the company, the less help has been required from external consultants. Indicates that important factors for a successful implementation are the attitude of the organisation when the implementation starts, that fairly detailed plans for the implementation are performed and that the documentation is adapted to the business and not necessarily to the ISO standard.

In order to stay competitive most small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) need to make decisions and improve their processes in a more efficient way. To manufacturing companies this is crucial not the least within the design and production phases. This means that a deeper understanding of the concept of variation, identification of causes of variation, and handling of these causes are important factors within SMEs. This paper presents two studies of implementation of statistical methods. One is related to the use of process capability studies in Swedish industry. The other one is related to the use of design of experiments at two small enterprises within the high performance ceramic industry. From both the studies we find recommendations how to implement statistical technics in SMEs in order to increase the possibilities of success.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ongoing development of quality management, and whether the concepts being discussed can be agreed – and what influence this might have on the quality movement and quality practice.

Literature review and meta‐analysis of current trends has been used to create a conceptual basis for current quality management questions.

A large part of the development of the quality concept and quality management has taken place without much consideration of what quality management really is or should be. Over time their definitions have been widened to incorporate wellbeing of society, the environment and future generations. Whereas top managers need to address all parts of business, there is a need to separate quality issues from other issues. It is believed that there is a need for quality experts and a discipline of quality management. Quality excellence with a strong customer focus should be one prerequisite to attain true business excellence. There are of course legitimate reasons to address issues as organizational and global sustainability, human rights, financial stability and environmental protection. To properly address these issues, concepts such as business management or stakeholder management might be more appropriate.

In the paper, the point is made that there is a need for quality management focusing on its core purpose: management of quality to provide customer satisfaction. In relation to current trends of adding aspects into quality management to develop concepts that are mere dialectal variants to the original, this “back‐to‐basics” approach is novel.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a self‐assessment project, the steps taken and the tools used, and above all, focus on the evaluation made after the decision to discontinue, learning and acquiring knowledge about self‐assessment as a methodology in educational organizations.

In order to investigate the experiences of the project, interviews were conducted with the Upper Secondary Education Officer and with ten School Principals and a questionnaire was administered to gather opinions among the other staff members. The analysis mainly consisted of searching for potential patterns among the respondents' answers studying their own words by use of three different criteria.

It is important how an organization enters a self‐assessment project, or even any quality project. Many people do not seem to have thought very much about what is considered to be quality in the environment in which they operate, and even less have a shared view within the organization. Too often organizations tend to start working with self‐assessment without sufficiently thinking of “why” and “how” to accomplish the project. The work is performed without preparing all those who are to participate in the project and without discussing the core values that constitute the work. If the organization has not reached the necessary maturity level it is probably a waste of resources to start a comprehensive self‐assessment project.

As a synthesis form the analysis, a model for how an organization should start self‐assessment is presented, as well as a number of guiding points. Also, the new tool “Lärostegen” is described.

The purpose of this paper is to describe maintenance in a generic process model, in order to support an alignment of maintenance with other company internal processes aimed at fulfilling external stakeholder requirements.

The proposed maintenance process model is based on existing theories and is illustrated by examples from a paper‐mill case study related to the maintenance of DC‐motors.

The proposed model supports a holistic view of maintenance and the alignment of the maintenance process with other company internal processes, in order to fulfil external stakeholder requirements.

Further research could include an application of the proposed maintenance model to test its usefulness to identify stakeholders and also hazard diagnosis.

The importance of vertical and horizontal alignment between the maintenance process and other processes in order to achieve effectiveness and efficiency is illustrated. The model can be used to increase the understanding of the role of maintenance within a company. Thereby, the proposed process model provides valuable support for effective, efficient, and continuous risk reduction.

The proposed process view highlights that maintenance can contribute to the fulfilment of external stakeholders' requirements, which strengthens the proposition that maintenance should be seen as a business‐process that creates value and not as something that is a “necessary evil”.

Total quality management (TQM) has been recognised and used during the last decades by organisations all over the world to develop a quality focus and improve organisational performance. In spite of this, TQM implementation is still problematic for many organisations. In this perspective important factors to succeed with the organisational change that TQM implementation implies will be discussed in this paper. Also presented is a multiple‐case study of TQM implementation processes in small organisations with a focus on core value aspects. An overarching implementation model is presented based on the multiple‐case study analysis and the theoretical frame. This model implies that TQM implementation will start with core values committed leadership, everybody’s commitment and customer orientation.

Based on a conceptual framework drawn from the original SERVQUAL model, the purpose of the paper is to explore the question of which service‐quality dimensions are deemed to be important by inbound tourists visiting a peripheral tourist location in Sweden.

Using questionnaires and interviews, Italian and British tourists visiting a peripheral tourist location in northern Sweden are studied in three phases: before the tourist experience, during the experience, and after return home.

Difference in the tourists' perceptions of the importance of various quality dimensions are identified before and after the tourism experience. Many similarities are identified between the needs and expectations of Italian and British tourists, although some differences also emerge.

Tourism managers should recognise that the needs of their customers can be influenced by: the time at which these needs are assessed; and cultural differences between nationalities.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to describe how a large organization has successfully worked to achieve sustainable health; compare the work of the large organization with methodologies used by smaller successful organizations; and then to create a model for how managers of larger organizations can work to create sustainable health.

The empirical data were gathered through interviews with managers at different organizational levels and workshops with employees, within a case study in a large bank which received the award “Sweden's best workplace”. The data were also compared to results from earlier case studies of three smaller organizations that have received the same award.

The results of the studies show coinciding results as to the importance of management commitment and methodologies, such as employee involvement, delegation, goal deployment and coaching, to create a health‐promoting work environment. This indicates that larger organizations do not need any specific methodologies.

Based on the experiences from four successful organizations, managers should mainly consider doing the following: start measuring and evaluating the consequences of sickness absence in their organization; and adopt a management strategy based on humanistic core values that are supported by methodologies and tools.

The paper adds understanding about how managers of large organizations could work practically to overcome management problems in today's working life and support the work and organizational factors earlier described in the literature to create a health‐promoting work environment that stimulates the development of sustainable health.