1. Traditional quality programs were, in the past, thought of as a single function in the company. Today, instead, they must be recognized as a system. atic group of quality disciplines, to be applied on a coordinated basis by all functions throughout the company and plant,
2. Traditional quality programs were, in the past, several organization layers removed from satisfactory direct, ongoing contact with the buyers and customers of the company's products and services. Today, instead, they with the buyer and customer on both a must be continuously couple feedforward and feedback basis
3. Quality problems transcend and do not respect individual functional organizational boundaries within companies. Today, the quality program must be organized accordingly, if it is to be realistic,
4. Quality-related operations in companies have become so extended, intricate, and involved today that the need for integrated, high-level control is of primary rather than secondary importance, as in the past. neces- sary to assure orientation to the real facts of the quality of new products under development, to receive "early warnings" of impending productionquality problems, and to permit management to run its quality operations rather than be run by them