Quality Control and Assurance

This chapter provides approaches for measuring the quality of processes and products. Defining quality, however, is difficult due to its multidimensionality. A simple definition of quality, from a producer’s point of view, is conformance to specifications while such specifications are measurable; for example, the length of an object can be clearly measured. However, this definition of quality may not be of much interest to the consumer. From a consumer’s point of view, quality may be defined based on its usefulness relative to the price paid to acquire such a product. Table 17.1 illustrates our classification of a multiperspective multicriteria view of quality control (QC) of processes and products. From a system’s point of view, an optimal trade-off between the quality of processes and the quality of products is considered. In addition, broader impacts of quality control, such as environmental consequences, are also considered.