Quality Management and the Small Business

In today's increasingly competitive markets, customer satisfaction -- stemming from quality -- is seen more and more often as the make-or-break factor -- especially for small manufacturing or service businesses. Although there has been increasing pressure on such businesses to adopt quality systems modelled on the requirements of the ISO9000 series of standards, Quality Assurance (often mistakenly confused with Quality Control) remains a very misunderstood philosophy. Using a jargon-free, down-to-earth approach, this book explores and explains the whole field of Quality Assurance as a complete management system. Defines the contents of a quality program and quality plan, leading to the development of a quality manual and supporting procedures, including quality auditing, computer software control, and the role of quality circles. Covers all the Quality Assurance activities for manufacturing and service firms -- e.g., design, procurement, manufacture, installation, and service. Includes many case histories and presents the various procedures and requirements in a quick-reference tabulated form which covers the activity scope, the involved personnel, and the methods of confirming activity compliance. For anyone involved in developing or implementing a quality assurance management system in a small manufacturing or service business.