We can define QRM in two contexts:

• Externally, as perceived by customers: QRM means responding to those customers' needs by rapidly designing and manufacturing products customized to those requirements.
• Internally, in terms of a company's own operations, QRM focuses on reducing the lead times for all tasks in a company, resulting in improved quality, lower cost, and of course, quick response.

QRM is a practical strategy that embodies the mindset of pursuing lead time reduction, along with detailed management principles, manufacturing methods, analysis techniques and tools, and a step-by-step methodology to achieve the desired reduction in lead times. In the QRM mindset the driver for all the principles and strategies in QRM is reduction of lead time. This time-based mindset results in many operating policies that are different from traditional ones. In contrast the driver in JIT / lean is waste reduction.