Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University / Quality control as a concept and working tool in modern industry takes many shapes and forms. It is one of the more recent management tools to be incorporated into the complex manufacturing organizations in present day industry. There are almost as many different working concepts and definitions of quality control as there are industrial organizations. When attempting to define quality control, its purposes and objectives, we can find general agreement on its overall scope. W. A. MacCrehan defines quality as "a planned, continuing effort to maintain product quality in manufacturing". 1 A. V. Feigenbaum of General Electric Co., a noted authority in the field of quality control, goes a step further and defines it, "as an effective system for coordinating the quality maintainance and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production at the most economical levels which allow for full customer satisfaction". These text definitions are generally carried over and incorporated in working company philosophies. The General Tire and Rubber Co. carries the following definition in its corporate manual for quality control: "Quality control is the act of assuring that outgoing product levels meet the established quality levels and of coordinating the activities of all departments in such a manner that established quality levels are maintained at the lowest possible cost" .3 This general concept of quality control, however, takes many varying manifestations when translated into specific working tools for use in the day to day activities of each industrial concern.

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