General and encyclopedic sources place the term's coinage and popularization across the mid to late 1980s, crediting a broad mix of contributors (Deming's and Juran's earlier quality-control work, the U.S. Navy's early use of the phrase, and its uptake by American manufacturers responding to Japanese quality methods) with no single agreed founding year or individual, unlike scientific management (Taylor, 1911) or management by objectives (Drucker, 1954).
What would resolve this A management-history source that traces the term's first documented use and its spread through American industry with named dates, rather than a general encyclopedia entry.
OpenManagement HistoryWikipedia, Total Quality Management