ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 we defined product quality in terms of six dimensions that relate to the performance in the way an item is developed, produced, and accepted by consumers relative to their expectations. This broad interpretation of quality extends over all of the processes for developing and producing products and includes the profile of performance throughout the product life. Chapter 4 discussed the basic warranties that are applied to consumer products and models for dealing with related economic decisions. Warranty claims represent quality problems and, therefore serve an important function of providing feedback to manufacturers on product quality. All of these quality dimensions affect the number and cost of warranty claims for a product. In this chapter we present a framework for measuring and tracking overall quality performance. To maintain high quality it is important to understand the causes of quality problems, be able to track performance over time, and have some capability to provide responsive actions for improvements.
