ABSTRACT
Quality can be defined from two perspectives: the customer and the producer. Customer-focused quality approach starts with the customer's perspective, then works to translate customer requirements and needs into the producer's perspective, which include considerations about product design and manufacturing that will result in a product or service that meets or exceeds customer requirements. This chapter argues that to achieve high quality a company must adopt a total quality management (TQM) approach. TQM builds product quality through attention to quality in every organizational function, from marketing and design to manufacturing to customer service. Concurrent engineering, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) considers features in the product's design that will simplify its manufacture and assembly, and, usually, simplify the manufacturing process, reduce manufacturing costs, and improve manufacturing quality. DFMA offers guidelines to improve a product's manufacturability, such as eliminate screws and fasteners, and use standard parts.
