Total Quality Management (TQM) is the strategic activity of implementing management's awareness of quality in an organization. Manufacturing, service, nonprofit, and government organizations have been using TQM extensively since the 1990s. This paper discusses total quality management in a service and manufacturing organization. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas is the service organization and Dell, Incorporation (Inc.) is the manufacturing organization discussed in this paper. The value of quality in customer satisfaction and description of METRO and Dell, Inc.'s need for customer-oriented quality are explained. A matrix comparing and contrasting the strategic roles of TQM for the two organizations is included. The importance of management and how leadership relates to quality is assessed in this survey paper on total quality management. Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) - Service Organization The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) is a total quality management organization providing public transportation services for Houston, Texas and surrounding areas. METRO ensures customer satisfaction by serving the Houston area with buses, light rail, paratransit and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. METRO also has a website to help meet the needs of new and existing passengers. The company has a local service that operates on city roads; and an express service that operates on the freeway. The local service has bus stops at every other corner of every route. The express service has Park and Ride areas near the freeway where customers can park their car and take the freeway bus to downtown Houston. Some express buses travel to the Medical Center and the Uptown/Galleria area. These services increase during peak hours for the convenience of customers to and from work. From 1990 to 2004, METRO consisted of the largest bus fleet in the United States before METRORail. The light rail service known as METRORail was founded by former Houston Mayor Lee Brown and former METRO CEO Shirley Deliberio. This service currently includes a light rail line called the Red Line and a mobility plan with five more lines to be completed by 2012. The Red Line is 7.5 miles long and is the second largest light rail service in Texas. Over 45,000 passengers travel on METRORail on an average weekday (METRO, 2008). METRORail is the first light rail system in Houston since the streetcar system 60 years ago. METRO's goal is to provide the Houston area with five lines and services 2012.