The quality function is an information-gathering service: from the mass of data which
is available in every production process and every service activity in the complex world of
commerce, quality extracts that which is most meaningful from that which is less so, and
by analysis of such process data sets out to control the future behaviour of the process
towards even greater customer satisfaction – towards better and better quality. Because all
modern business systems generate such colossal amounts of data, quality makes use of the
mathematics of big numbers – statistical methods – to distill useful meaning from the
daunting mega-heaps of data. So the belief has arisen that quality is little more than applied
statistics; this is on a par with averring that Chippendale furniture-making is little more