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Consumers are interested in better quality at a given price or similar quality at a lower price. Likewise, most industries and businesses are interested in competing on that basis in the market place. In order to compete successfully however, businesses must apply those methods, procedures and concepts that produce desired results. The author reviews the areas of deficiency in existing business practices in achieving this goal and offers suggestions toward improvement.

United States (US) industries spend much time and money every year in quality assurance or quality control training (hereafter referred to as quality training) for their employees. Yet these industries, in general, tend to remain frustrated with the outcome of such efforts. This paper attempts to put the total problem of quality training in perspective on a national scale. Seven different segments are discussed with respect to the influence quality training has over industry professionals, professional societies, government, industry, engineering colleges, management colleges, and quality professionals. Also discussed is the question of why the task of quality training is very frustrating

In the past few years, there has been an increasing utilization of risk analyses of reliability and safety considerations in the design and management decision processes. Management decisions, however, are contingent on matters other than the strictly technical. A primary business objective is to gain the customers' acceptance by satisfying the criteria of product availability. This can be attained by providing highly reliable and/or easily maintainable products. These can be two different design philosophical approaches. In the design philosophy where a highly maintainable design is the best alternative, risk analysis becomes an important tool in assessing the risk of “down time” as well as the risk associated with maintenance actions. This paper will discuss the twin aspects of availability and maintainability and their impact on management decisions. A practical example is given.

Communicating reliability to design engineers is one tough task. With the exception of the aerospace industry, reliability engineering efforts can at best be compared with newly laid grass sod which has not taken to root yet. The major amount of publicity given to the industries' reliability efforts belongs to product reliability assessment and performance areas. The reliability engineering discipline which really advocates prevention in the design engineering process is not yet well-integrated in the total product creation process. This paper examines the preceding situation as a “communication” problem among design engineers, reliability engineers and management. It is contended that the reliability engineering process, if properly communicated and organized as discussed, will be a significant expansion of conventional reliability engineering and organizational practices.

Synthesizing different customer and functional requirements into an acceptable design configuration within a given space constraints is a challenging task for design engineers. The principles for designing efficiency, noise levels, maneuverability, safety, durability, etc. into the product are well understood. However, designing for reliability, maintainability and quality turns out to be a long-drawn laborious process due to unavailability of simplified design procedures. The author in this paper develops the understanding of reliability, maintainability and quality design principles and methods for products, with specific reference to vehicle designs.