Abstract
This paper reports on an investigation based on manufacturing companies in the United Kingdom. The investigation examined various ways in which companies manage their product quality. In carrying out the study three different pieces of work have been undertaken: namely, case studies, two separate postal questionnaire surveys, and the development and testing of a method for helping organizations to focus on their quality-related decisions. The method developed enables an organization to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their approach to quality management.
The findings reveal the many different opinions, structures and functions relative to the approaches of manufacturing companies to quality management. Due to the multitude of factors which influence the way a company goes about managing the task it was impossible to identify a general approach. It was, however, possible to evolve a method based on a quality-related decision-making approach, which provides a means for manufacturing companies to assess their ongoing management of quality and relate this to their specific needs.
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