Quality Management1
20.0 INTRODUCTION
During the past twenty years, there has been a revolution in quality. Improvements have occurred not only in product quality, but also in leadership quality and project management quality. The changing views of quality appear in Table 20-1.
Unfortunately, it takes an economic disaster or a recession to get management to recognize the need for improved quality. Prior to the recession of 1979–1982, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler viewed each other as the competition rather than the Japanese. Prior to the recession of 1989–1994, high-tech engineering companies never fully recognized the need for shortening product development time and the relationship between project management, total quality management, and concurrent engineering.
The push for higher levels of quality appears to be customer driven. Customers are now demanding:
- Higher performance requirements
- Faster product development
- Higher technology levels
- Materials and processes pushed to the limit
- Lower contractor profit margins
- Fewer defects/rejects
One of the critical factors that can affect quality is market expectations. The variables that affect market expectations include:
- Salability: the balance between ...
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