Till 1980s, the products were not very complex and hence companies could manufacture them by their own.Hence the TQM philosophies hovered around improving quality within the companies[Dmitry Ivanov]. But now competition is not only found at the firm level. Business competition now exists between Supply Chains. This level of competition requires a much greater level of coordination among chains or networks of suppliers, distributors, producers, and customers. Therefore,quality management practices, techniques and tools must be spread throughout the whole supply chain to improve organizational performance. Skryť popis