Participants at the ISO 9001 & TQM International Conference and the Shanghai International Symposium on Quality proposed several ways that quality philosophies can adapt to the rapidly changing Asian social environment. The conferences were held simultaneously in Shanghai recently. Participants presented 164 papers addressing six common themes: adapting quality philosophies to new environments, the extension of total quality management to new fields, the use of performance excellence models to promote international competency, the expansion of Six Sigma, the importance of value-added operations as effective management systems, and knowledge management as quality improvement.

Zhaou Taitong, deputy mayor of Shanghai, spoke about adapting quality methodologies to governmental agencies in China. Other speakers spoke about several other philosophies that are ripe for the use of quality techniques: general public quality awareness, scientific quality, reformed quality, and human-oriented quality.

Liu Yuanzhang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and International Academy for Quality, pointed out that the development of a scientific quality philosophy would help achieve sustainable development.

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