According to the literature, quality management consists of a set of components: critical factors, tools, techniques and practices. The purpose of this paper is: to identify the components of total quality management (TQM), in order to make them known to managers and thus facilitate successful quality management implementation, and to show the situation of 106 ISO 9000 certified firms concerning these components.
In order to achieve this objective, a literature review and a survey based on 106 ISO 9000 certified firms in Spain were developed.
The results reflect that certified firms must develop their people orientation 1and use techniques and tools to a higher extent in order to progress towards total quality.
The value of the paper is point out which TQM components are important to successfully implement TQM and identify the situation of these components in ISO 9000 certified firms in a particular area.
