ABSTRACT
Design is more responsible for quality than most people realize, as noted long ago by quality control guru Dr. Joseph Juran.1 Designers determine the number of parts, decide which are purchased off-the-shelf, select the purchased parts, design the rest of the parts (indirectly specifying how they will be made), determine how the parts must be assembled, and specify how the parts function together. The product’s design determines the factory processes, whether or not the designers realize it. If designers realized this, they might be more inclined to work with manufacturing as a team to simultaneously design the product and its processing.
