Purpose of the platform
Research on Quality Management Systems is an independent, multi-project research initiative devoted to the historical, methodological, and systemic study of Quality Management across sectors.The platform is designed as a structured research environment (not a commercial website and not a catalogue of “tips”).
The primary purpose is to build, organise, and disseminate a rigorous and reusable body of knowledge on how Quality Management ideas, methods, and governance models emerged, evolved, and shaped organisational transformation over time.
Open-access principle.
Whenever archives are made publicly available, they are provided free of charge to support research, education, and informed professional practice, and to encourage the responsible adoption of systemic improvement methods.
Scope:
multi-sector research programmes The website hosts multiple research programmes developed under a shared methodological orientation and applied to different domains (e.g., industrial systems, healthcare and public systems, environment and sustainability). Each programme constitutes an autonomous research line while remaining interoperable with the overall archive.
Topics typically addressed
- Historical evolution of quality concepts: control, assurance, improvement, process governance.
- Systemic methods derived from Total Quality Management and continuous improvement.
- Management-system standards and related frameworks contributing to the Quality Management Revolution.
- Key contributors and thought leaders analysed within their historical and organisational contexts.
Note: the scope is intentionally broad in order to enable cross-sector comparison and methodological transfer.
Methodological orientation
Across projects, the platform applies a consistent research discipline: historical-critical inquiry, systemic interpretation, and process-oriented reasoning. Archives are curated to support traceability between sources, analyses, and outputs.
Research integrity
The platform aims to preserve complexity and enable verification, rather than compress knowledge into reductive summaries. Where possible, documents and objects are organised to support reuse, comparison, and continuous refinement.
Open archives and cultural diffusion
The open-access archives serve a dual purpose:
- Knowledge preservation and accessibility for researchers, professionals, and organisations.
- Cultural diffusion of systemic methods to stimulate informed interest and the desire to adopt rigorous approaches to Quality Management, continuous improvement, and organisational governance.
This dual mission reflects the idea that high-quality research should be both methodologically rigorous and practically generative—supporting responsible adoption without turning the site into commercial promotion.
Positioning
Research on Quality Management Systems functions as a centre-of-study style platform: a structured research environment accessed via HistoryOfQuality.com, dedicated to the disciplined investigation of quality as a historical, human, and systemic process shaping long-term organisational transformation.
If you would like to contribute comments, suggestions, sources, or corrections, please contact: Info@Historyofquality.com
