Implementation of quality management from a historical perspective:the forensic science odyssey

Forensic science has had the opportunity to learn from history, the evolution of the principles and practice of Quality Management (QM). There was a focus on product quality and standards of manufacture as far back as the guild systems in Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Major changes to this early form of Q M came with the industrial revolution (1760 to 1840) particularly, initially, with planned inspections. This was followed by statistical quality control and then the thinking, practices and influence of the ‘quality gurus’ such as Walter Shewart, W Edwards Deming and Kaoru Ishikawa in the early to mid-1900s and many of these initiatives have been adopted into forensic science. Initiatives in the USA and the UK in the 1970’s and 1980’s were essentially the driving forces for a standardized, global approach to QM in forensic science. The aim of this paper is to trace the QM evolution with a focus on laboratory accreditation. A subsequent paper (in production) will examine other aspects of QM in forensic science and its effectiveness in today’s environment.