Between the 70’s and the 80’s, North America and Western Europe were suffering economically because they were facing a solid competition from Japan's ability to produce high-quality goods at competitive cost. In 1984, the Navy started to focus in quality management and in 1985 it branded the effort as “Total Quality Management”. Total Quality Management, TQM, is a management approach for guiding the company in order to be able to produce and sell products or services that meet customers’ expectations. There are eight principles of TQM: Customer-focused: The customer ultimately decides the level of quality. Total employee involvement: All members contribute towards a common goal. Process-centered: A key part of TQM is focusing on process thinking.