A Method for Quality Precoordination in a Quality Assurance Information System

The paper introduces a new concept of an information center for planning and controlling the quality of products and processes in a factory. This center is called the Quality Assurance Information System (QAIS), and its role is to tie together through quality related functions, in design, manufacturing, distribution, sales and other factory management systems to optimize overall factory performance. This paper views the quality functions of QAIS as carried out through coordination and precoordination activities. While coordination is a well known concept, precoordination is new. It aims at organizing the participation of all subsystems in the factory network in the planning of new product development, and in providing methodologies for system evaluation and trade-off analysis for better solutions and integration. This paper presents a formal approach for dealing with precoordination activities. It proposes a methodology for the quantitative evaluation and selection of complex systems satisfying desired product or process quality requirements from a number of the factory's subsystems. Practical steps on how to implement precoordination are presented and the methodology is illustrated through a case example.