Introduction to Quality
Chapter 1

The History and Importance of Quality
In a broad sense, quality assurance refers to any planned and systematic activity directed toward providing consumers with products (goods and services) of appropriate quality belong with the confidence that products meet consumers’ requirements. Quality assurance has been an important aspect of production operations throughout history.

* The Age of Craftsmanship
During the middle ages in Europe, skilled craftsperson, adequately trained by craft guilds, served as both as manufacturer and inspector. Quality assurance was informal; every effort was made to ensure that quality was built into the final product by the people who produce it. These themes which were lost with the advent of industrial revolution are important foundations of modern quality assurance efforts.

* The Early Twentieth Century
In the early 1900s, the work of Frederick W. Taylor, led to new philosophy of production. Taylor’s philosophy was to separate the planning function from the execution function. Managers and engineers were given the task of planning, supervisor and workers took on the task of execution. Inspection was the primary mean of quality control during the first half of the twentieth century.

* Post- World War II
After the war, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Quality was not a priority of top managers. Top management showed little interest in quality improvement on the prevention of defects and errors, relying instead on mass inspection.
During the time, two U.S. consultants, Dr. Joseph Juran and Dr. W. Edwards Deming, introduced statistical quality control techniques to the Japanese to aid them in their rebuilding efforts.

* The U.S. “Quality Revolution”
The decade of the 1980s was a period of remarkable change and growing awareness of quality by consumer, industry, and