For firms operating in an intensely competitive environment, quality can offer an important competitive advantage. If the robust quality view is correct, then firms can capitalize on it, decreasing the number of defective units (robustly defined) while simultaneously decreasing their total quality costs. This is what appears to be happening for those firms that are striving to achieve a robust zero-defect state (i.e., a state with zero tolerance) for their products. The optimal level for quality costs is where products are produced that meet their target values. The quest to find ways to achieve the target value creates a dynamic quality world, as opposed to the static quality world of AQL.