ABSTRACT
Ultimate customer satisfaction with today’s complex products has its roots in the quality of the design process. Quality must become an inherent characteristic of the design at its inception. The utilization of a multidisciplined review team, working in a concurrent engineering environment, has proven to be an effective means of accomplishing this goal, and the preliminary phase of design development is not too early for implementation. This melding of technical and administrative professionals, ranging from operators and inspectors on the production fl oor, through supporting departments, to the individual participation of executive management is the key to achieving customer satisfaction in the marketplace. This practice is commonly referred to as “total quality management” (TQM), and is being implemented in one form or another by most major manufacturing and service industries today, regardless of their product line.
