Fundamentals of Quality Control and Improvement, 3rd edition

Book Preface

This book covers the foundations of modern methods of quality conrol and improvement that are used in the manufacturing and service industries. Quality is key to surviving tough competition. Consequently, business needs technically competent people who are wellversed in statistical quality control and improvement.

This book should serve the needs of students in business and management and students in engineering, technology, and related disciplines. Professionals will find this book to be a valuable reference in the field.

An outgrowth of many years of teaching, research, and consulting in the field of quality assurance and statistical process control, the methods discussed in this book apply statistical foundations to real-world situations. Mathematical derivations and proofs are kept to a minimum to allow a better flow of material. Although an introductory course in statistics would be useful to a reader, the foundations of statistical tools and techniques discussed in Chapter 4 should enable students without a statistical background to understand the material.

Prominently featured are many real-world examples. For each major concept, at least one example demonstrates its application. Furthermore, case studies at the end of some chapters enhance student understanding of pertinent issues.

The book is divided into five parts. Part I, which deals with the philosophy and fundamentals of quality control, consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to quality control and die total quality system. In addition to introducing the reader to the nomenclature associated with quality control and improvement, it provides a framework for the systems approach to quality. Discussions of quality costs and their measurement, along with activity-based costing, are presented. In Chapter 2 we examine philosophies of such leading experts as Deming, Crosby, and Juran. Deming’s 14 points for management are analyzed, and the three philosophies are compared. Features of quality in the service sector are introduced. Chapter 3 covers quality management practices, tools, and standards. Topics such as total quality management, balanced scorecard, quality function deployment, benchmarking, failure mode and effects criticality analysis, and tools for quality improvement are presented. We also discuss the criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the United States and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 standards.