ABSTRACT
All but the most simple products contain very large numbers of features. In theory, every feature of every unit produced could be inspected and judged against the requirements. However, this would add considerable cost to the product while, for most features, adding little or no value to the customer. The producer is faced with the need for establishing a hierarchy of importance for the various characteristics of the product. Which features are so important that they deserve a great deal of attention? Which need only a moderate amount of attention? Which need only a cursory inspection? The activity of arriving at this determination is known as classification of characteristics.
