Quality from Customer Needs to Customer Satisfaction (Paperback, 3rd Revised edition)

This book examines the quality movement from a holistic perspective that is unique. It will serve as an invaluable handbook both for students and for those interested in enhancing quality in their own organisations. Practical illustrations are combined with a comprehensive and systemic overview of the extraordinary story of how Japanese industrialists adopted and developed the ideas of American quality gurus only to then find their own methodologies being exported to the USA and the rest of the world. The authors are leading Swedish academics with many years of experience in the quality field. The book is divided into five fairly independent parts. In Part I the quality concept and the evolution of the quality movement are examined. Furthermore, the relation between quality improvements, on one hand, and costs, profitability and success, on the other is illustrated. Parts II deals with methodologies and tools, which facilitates a customer focused product development. Among these are Quality Function Deployment, Reliability, Design of Experiments, and Robust Design. Part III focuses on the concept of variation and on methodologies and tools for quality improvements in the design and production processes. The seven improvement tools, statistical process control, capability, and supplier partnership are discussed. Part IV deals with satisfaction and loyalty of external and internal customers, what these concepts mean and how to measure them. In Part V focuses on the important role of management for quality improvements is discussed as well as the concept of leadership. Furthermore, processes, process management, Six Sigma, Lean Production, Quality Awards and quality management systems are elucidated. Finally, the book ends with a discussion of the importance of quality management in order to create a sustainable society.