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The call for quality is not a new phenomenon. Manufacturers have implemented sophisticated quality management systems for more than half a century. To feed the quality drive in the business sector, a wide array of complex theoretical and statistical models have been developed over the years. The ISO9000, Total Quality Management, Advanced Product Quality Planning, Lean Manufacturing, Quality Circle, Bench Marking, and Six Sigma are some of the buzz words in the world of quality management. But the underlying objectives for most of these programs are product standardization and production process improvement.

Product standardization is about ensuring that all products within a given category are identical. Standardization efforts do not aim at improving the overall quality of the products, but at making sure that all products are of the same quality. A customer who walks into a McDonald's restaurant has certain expectations about the taste, flavor, volume, and design of a burger. McDonald's seeks to satisfy the customer's expectations by supplying identical burgers every time the customer visits the restaurant. For McDonald's, quality management is not about improving the nutritional value or the design or the taste of the burgers, but it is about ensuring that customers can enjoy identical burgers every time. Product standardization is an important measure to secure customer loyalty, but not to raise the quality of the end product.

Production process improvement focuses on the production process and operational efficiency. It aims at eliminating waste and inefficiency, but it does not address the quality of the end product. Six Sigma is one of the latest inventions in quality management. The system was developed by Motorola in 1981, and has allegedly saved the company millions of dollars by detecting and rectifying errors in production process. Process improvement is an important cost-saving measure. By eliminating errors, manufacturers minimize the possibility of customers returning defected products.