In 2011, the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), a proponent of knowledge management, benchmarking, and best practices business research, talked to a series of large organizations to learn how they measure quality. Every organization interviewed expressed considerable interest in the topic, suggesting that the evaluation of quality at the corporate level is a widespread concern in today’s market. Twelve common practices emerged from the research.

These practices should not be considered best practices because of the small sample size in the study. Nonetheless, these findings will be used to build hypotheses that will be tested during upcoming, more in-depth APQC studies.

Researchers interviewed and collected data from nine organizations selected from multiple industries. Annual revenue for these organizations ranged from $4 billion to $32 billion, and each organization’s structure comprises multiple business units and product lines.

The 12 common practices employed by the interviewed organizations are described below. All of the research participants admit there is room for improvement in their organizations, and they are continually seeking better approaches for monitoring and improving quality. The 12 practices fall into four categories: selection, calculation, reporting and analysis, and governance.

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