The roots of Total Quality Management can be traced to early 1920's production quality control ideas, and notably the concepts developed in Japan beginning in the late 1940's and 1950's, pioneered there by Americans Feigenbum, Juran and Deming. 

Quality Gurus are individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of quality management through their work and teachings. 

These individuals have influenced the development of quality management principles and have helped organizations worldwide to improve their quality processes, Quality Management resulted mainly from the work of the quality gurus and their theories: the American gurus featured in the 1950's Japan: Joseph Juran, W Edwards Deming, and Armand Feigenbum. 

The Japanese quality gurus who developed and extended the early American quality ideas and models: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, and Shigeo Shingo; and the 1970-80's American Western gurus, notably Philip Crosby and Tom Peters, who further extended the Quality Management concepts after the Japanese successes. 

Total Quality Management features centrally the customer-supplier interfaces, (external and internal customers and suppliers).