Quality Assurance

xxxi

Introduction

The world of quality has been involved with quality ideas since prehistoric

times, from primitive approaches to craftsmanship, to MIL-STDs, to gen-

eral industry standards, to international standards, and to specic industry

standards.

However, none of them has been successful enough to say with a sense

of certainty that quality has overcome its nemesis of timing and price. (We

purposely mention price because that is the cost per unit on which most

organizations focus. Organizations should focus instead on the lifecycle cost

for a best estimate for the true cost.) To be sure, quality has evolved to levels

of unprecedented magn ...