Chapter I

Research And Developmen

The phrase research and development (also known as R and D or R&D),

according to the OECD, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis

in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture

and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications".

Research and development is often scientific or toward the development of

particular technologies and is frequently carried out as corporate or governmental

activity.

Background

New product design and development is more often than not a crucial factor in the

survival of a company. In an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually

revise their design and range of products. This is necessary due to continuous

technology change and development as well as other competitors and the

changing preference of customers. Without an R&D program, a firm must rely

on strategic alliances, acquisitions, and networks to tap into the innovations of

others.

A system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and only

produces goods that are known to sell. Market research is carried out, which

establishes what is needed. If the development is technology driven then it is a

matter of selling what it is possible to make. The product range is developed so

that production processes are as efficient as possible and the products are

technically superior, hence possessing a natural advantage in the market place.

In general, R&D activities are conducted by specialized units or centers belonging

to companies, universities and state agencies. In the context of commerce,

"research and development" normally refers to future-oriented, longer-term

activities in science or technology, using similar techniques to scientific research

without predetermined outcomes and with broad forecasts of commercial yield.

Statistics on organizations devoted to "R&D" may express the state of an industry,

the degree of competition or the lure of progress. Some common measures

include: budgets, numbers ofpatents or on rates of peer-reviewed publications.

Bank ratios are one of the best measures, because they are continuously

maintained, public and reflect risk.

In the U.S., a typical ratio of research and development for an industrial company

is about 3.5% of revenues. A high technology company such as a computer

manufacturer might spend 7%. Although Allergan (a biotech company) tops the

spending table with 43.4% investment, anything over 15% is remarkable and

usually gains a reputation for being a high technology company. Companies in

this category include pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co. (14.1%)

or Novartis (15.1%), and engineering companies like Ericsson (24.9%). Such

companies are often seen as credit risks because their spending ratios are so

unusual.

Generally such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme

needs, such as medicine, scientific instruments, safety-critical mechanisms

(aircraft) or high technology military armaments. The extreme needs justify the

high risk of failure and consequently high gross margins from 60% to 90% of

revenues. That is, gross profits will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with

manufacturing costing only 10% of the product price, because so many individual

projects yield no exploitable product. Most industrial companies get only 40%

revenues.

On a technical level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and

repackage advanced technologies as a way of amortizing the high overhead. They

often reuse advanced manufacturing processes, expensive safety certifications,

specialized embedded software, computer-aided design software, electronic

designs and mechanical subsystems.

Research has shown that firms with a persistent R&D strategy outperform those

with an irregular or no R&D investment programme.

Research

The US Federal government spent more than $25 billion in health-related R&D in

2005. Much of this spending is devoted to basic research on the mechanisms of

disease, which acts as a supporter or the foundation for the pharmaceutical

industry’s research. Both students and postdoctoral researchers form the R&D

workforce. The Federal government supports graduate students and postdoctoral

researchers in academic labs, where basic research is conducted. Pharmaceutical

also hired students as interns while they are still at University. Government and

private R&D efforts have sometimes overlapped - as in finishing the mapping the

human genome. Identifying specific cases where direct overlapping has occurred

is difficult, but it is probably most likely to happen when the government funds

research, where potential profitable commercial applications has been identified

by the pharmaceutical companies. In the United States, universities are the main

provider of research level products. Development is concerned with proof of

concept, safety testing, and determining ideal levels and delivery mechanisms.

Development often occurs in phases that are defined by drug safety regulators in

the country of interest. In the United States, approximately one in ten compounds

identified by basic research pass all development phases and reach market.

Pharmaceuticals market, however are extremely complex in many respects. Large

public sector investments in biomedical R & D influence private companies'

choices about what is important and how intensely to invest. The returns on

private sector R & D are attractive, on average but they vary considerably from

one drug to the next. Consumer demand for prescription drug is often indirect,

mediated by doctors and health insurers. New drug must undergo costly and time

consuming testing before they are sold.

Business

Present-day Research and development is of great importance in business as the

level of competition, production processes and methods are rapidly increasing. It

is of special importance in the field of marketing where companies keep an eagle

eye on competitors and customers in order to keep pace with modern trends and

analyze the needs, demands and desires of their customers.

Unfortunately, research and development are very difficult to manage, since the

defining feature of research is that the researchers do not know in advance exactly

how to accomplish the desired result. As a result, higher R&D spending does not

guarantee "more creativity, higher profit or a greater market share".

R&D alliance

An R&D alliance is a mutually beneficial formal relationship between two or

more parties to pursue a set of agreed goals while remaining independent

organisations, where acquiring new knowledge is a goal by itself. The different

parties agree to combine their knowledge to create new innovative products.

Thanks to funding from government organizations, like the European

Union'sSeventh Framework Programme (FP7), and modern advances in

technology, R&D alliances have now become more efficient. Every company has

their own research and develop department.

Congress And National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government

agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical

fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes

of Health. With an annual budget of about US$6.87 billion (fiscal year 2010), the

NSF funds approximately 20% of all federally supported basic research conducted

by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such

as mathematics, computer science, economics and the social sciences, the NSF is

the major source of federal backing.

The NSF's director, deputy director, and the 24 members of the National Science

Board (NSB)  are appointed by the President of the United States, and confirmed

by the United States Senate. The director and deputy director are responsible for

administration, planning, budgeting and day-to-day operations of the foundation,

while the NSB meets six times a year to establish its overall policies.

Grants and the merit review process

Although many other federal research agencies operate their own laboratories,

notable examples being the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NSF does

not. Instead, it seeks to fulfill its mission chiefly by issuing competitive, limited-

term grants in response to specific proposals from the research community. (The

NSF also makes some contracts.) Some proposals are solicited, and some are not;

the NSF funds both kinds.

The NSF receives about 40,000 such proposals each year, and funds about 10,000

of them. Those funded are typically the projects that are ranked highest in a merit

review process. These reviews are carried out by panels of independent scientists,

engineers and educators who are experts in the relevant fields of study, and who

are selected by the NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest.

For example, reviewers cannot work at the NSF itself, nor for the institution that

employs the proposing researchers. All proposal evaluations are confidential: the

proposing researchers may see them, but they do not see the names of the

reviewers.

The second merit review criterion, that of the broader societal impacts of the

proposed research, has been met with opposition from the scientific and policy

communities since its inception in 1997. In June 2010, the National Science

Board (NSB), the governing body for NSF and science advisers to both the

legislative and executive branches, convened its Task Force on Merit Review to

determine "how well the current Merit Review criteria used by the National

Science Foundation (NSF) to evaluate all proposals were serving the agency." The

task force reinforced its support for both criteria as appropriate for the goals and

aims of the agency, and published a revised version of the merit review criteria in

its final report. But both criteria already had been mandated for all NSF merit

review procedures in the 2010 reauthorization of the America COMPETES

Act. The Act also includes an emphasis on promoting potentially transformative

research, a phrase which has been included in the most recent incarnation of the

Intellectual Merit review criterion.

Most NSF grants go to individuals or small groups of investigators who carry out

research at their home campuses. Other grants provide funding for mid-scale

research centers, instruments and facilities that serve researchers from many

institutions. Still others fund national-scale facilities that are shared by the

research community as a whole. Examples of national facilities include the NSF’s

national observatories, with their giant optical and radio telescopes;

its Antarctic research sites; its high-end computer facilities and ultra-high-speed

network connections; the ships and submersibles used for ocean research; and its

gravitational wave observatories.

In addition to researchers and research facilities, NSForce grants also support

science, engineering and mathematics education from pre-K through graduate

school. Undergraduates can receive funding through REU summer

programs. Graduate students are supported through IGERT (Integrative Graduate

Education Research Traineeships) and AGEP (Alliance for Graduate Education

and the Professoriate) programs and through the Graduate Research

Fellowships, NSF-GRF. An early career-development program (CAREER)

supports teacher-scholars that most effectively integrate research and education

within the mission of their organization, as a foundation for a lifetime of

integrated contributions.

Scope and organization

The NSF's workforce numbers about 1,700, nearly all working at its Arlington,

Virginia, headquarters. That includes about 1,200 career employees, 150 scientists

from research institutions on temporary duty, 200 contract workers, and the staff

of the National Science Board office and the Office of the Inspector General,

which examines the foundation's work and reports to the NSB and Congress.

Research directorates

The NSF organizes its research and education support through seven directorates,

each encompassing several disciplines:

Biological Sciences (molecular, cellular, and

organismal biology, environmental science)

Computer and Information Science and Engineering (fundamental computer

science, computer and networking systems, and artificial intelligence)

Engineering (bioengineering, environmental systems, civil and mechanical

systems, chemical and transport systems, electrical and communications

systems, and design and manufacturing)

Geosciences (geological, atmospheric and ocean sciences)

Mathematical and Physical

Sciences (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and materials science)

Social, Behavioral and Economic

Sciences (neuroscience, management, psychology, sociology, anthropology, li

nguistics, science of science policy and economics)

Education and Human

Resources (science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at

every level, pre-K to grey)

Other research offices

The NSF also supports research through several offices within the Office of the

Director:

Office of Cyberinfrastructure

Office of Polar Programs

Office of Integrative Activities

Office of International Science and Engineering

Crosscutting programs

In addition to the research it funds in specific disciplines, the NSF has launched a

number of crosscutting projects that coordinate the efforts of experts in many

disciplines. Examples include initiatives in:

Nanotechnology

The science of learning

Digital libraries

The ecology of infectious diseases

In many cases, these projects involve collaborations with other U.S. federal

agencies.

History and mission

The NSF was established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Its

stated mission is "To promote the progress of science; to advance the national

health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense."

Some historians of science have argued that the result was an unsatisfactory

compromise between too many clashing visions of the purpose and scope of the

federal government. The NSF was certainly not the primary government agency

for the funding of basic science, as its supporters had originally envisioned in the

aftermath of World War II. By 1950, support for major areas of research had

already become dominated by specialized agencies such as the National Institutes

of Health (medical research) and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (nuclear

and particle physics). That pattern would continue after 1957, when U.S. anxiety

over the launch of Sputnik led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (space science) and theDefense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (defense-related research).

Nonetheless, the NSF's scope has expanded over the years to include many areas

that were not in its initial portfolio, including the social and behavioral sciences,

engineering, and science and mathematics education. Today, as described in its

2003–2008 strategic plan, the NSF is the only U.S. federal agency with a mandate

to support all the non-medical fields of research.

In the process, moreover, the foundation has come to enjoy strong bipartisan

support from Congress. Especially after the technology boom of the 1980s, both

sides of the aisle have generally embraced the notion that government-funded

basic research is essential for the nation's economic health and global

competitiveness, as well as for the national defense. That support has manifested

itself in an expanding budget—from $1 billion in 1983 ($2.19bn in 2010 dollars)

to just over $6.87 billion by FY 2010. (fiscal year 2011 request and 2010 enacted

level).

Legislative History

In the midst of World War II US policymakers became convinced that something

had to be done with America's scientific infrastructure. Although the federal

government had established nearly 40 scientific organizations between 1910 and

1940, the US relied upon a primarily laissez-faire approach to scientific research

and development. Growing rubber shortages and other war related bottlenecks led

many to rethink America's decentralized and market driven approach to science.

Despite a growing consensus that something had to be done, there was no

consensus on what to do. Two primary proposals emerged, one from New

Deal Senator Harley M. Kilgore and another from Vannevar Bush .

Harley Kilgore's Vision

Narratives about the National Science Foundation typically concentrated on Bush

and his publication Science-The Endless Frontier. This began to change in the late

1970s when scholars began to look closer at the historical record . What they saw

was that the National Science Foundation first appears as a comprehensive New

Deal Policy proposed by Sen. Harley Kilgore of West Virginia. Swept into office

on the wave of new deal politicians, Harley Kilgore was a small businessman with

a deep distrust of monopolies. Looking about the landscape of wartime research

Kilgore was concerned about the largely laissez-faire approach to producing

technologies and products. He was also concerned about the lack of coordination

between the federal government and private firms, believing that organizational

chaos would lead to a failure in technology production. He was also distressed by

the concentration of research activities in the hands of a few elite universities and

a few private firms. Always suspicious of monopolies, he also feared that

monopolistic industries had no incentives to develop the products needed for war

and postwar economic and social welfare. His solution to these problems was to

propose a comprehensive and centralized research body that would be responsible

to many stakeholders and that would be in charge of producing both basic and

applied research. According to this vision, research would no longer be driven by

the invisible hand of the market. Research projects would be selected by the

public. This public would be represented by a committee of stakeholders

including commuting members, industry, and academia. Research results and

products would not be owned by private interests, instead the public would own

the rights to all patents funded by public monies. Rather than let the market

pursue applied research, the proposed agency would pursue both basic and applied

research that would support science direct economic and social importance.

Responding to his worry about concentration, research monies would be equitably

spread across universities.

Vannevar Bush's Approach

Kilgore's proposals met mixed support. Non-elite universities as well small

businesses supported his proposals. The Budget Bureau also supported him.

Opponents feared that the policy would take research out of the hands of

scientists. Others suggested that the policy would socialize at large and

independent section of the economy. Another opponent was Vannevar Bush, who

was the liaison between Congress and the Office of Scientific Research and

Development. He recognized some of the same problems as Kilgore highlighted,

and he saw some things he liked in Kilgore's proposals, however he thought that

the proposed federal science agency should have a much different form. Bush did

not like the idea of letting social interests and community members drive science

policy. He feared that the selection of research projects would become politicized

and he also had complete faith in the ability of scientists to pick the best possible

projects. Furthermore, in contrast to Kilgore, he felt that the agency should have

the narrower mandate of pursuing only basic science, rather than basic and applied

science. Unlike Kilgore, he believed the public should not own research results

and products, instead responsible researchers should own the research results.

Broadly speaking Bush's vision was significantly more narrow than Kilgore's

proposal. It maintained the status quo in patenting arrangements, it limited project

selection to scientists, and it narrowed projects to basic research.

Reception and Passing

Kilgore first introduced his policy in 1942 under the title the Technology

Mobilization Act. After the failure of this attempt, as well as subsequent failed

attempts, the National Science Foundation act passed in 1950. The final bill

mostly took on the character of Vannevar Bush's proposal. Broadly speaking it

brought about a fragmented or pluralistic system of federal funding for research.

During the eight years between initial proposal and final passage, new and

existing agencies claimed pieces from the original proposal, leaving the science

foundation with limited responsibilities . In the end the final policy represented a

failure for those who believed in popular control over research resources and

those who believe that planning and coordination could be extended to the sphere

of science policy. Conversely the final policy represented a victory for business

interests (who feared competition from the government in the area of applied

research and who saw Kilgore's patent law proposal as a threat to their property

rights) and for scientists (who gained control of what would later become an

important source of resources and professional autonomy).

Timeline

pre–World War II 

Academic research in science and engineering is not considered a federal

responsibility; almost all support comes from private contributions and

charitable foundations. Governmental research into science and

technology was largely uncoordinated; military research is

compartmentalized to the point where different branches are often working

on the same subject without realizing it.

World War II 

There is a growing awareness that America's military capability owes a

great deal to the nation's strength in science and engineering. Congress

considers several proposals to provide federal support for research in these

fields. Separately, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sponsors the creation of

several organizations to coordinate federal funding of science for the

purposes of war, including the National Defense Research Committee and

the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

1942

Senator Harley Kilgore introduces the Science Mobilization Act (S. 1297).

It does not pass.

1945 

Vannevar Bush—head of the Office of Scientific Research and

Development, intimately connected with the Manhattan Project, and

personal acquaintance of the President—was asked by President Roosevelt

in 1944 to write a report on what should be done in the postwar to further

foster government commitment to science and technology. Bush issued his

report to President Harry S. Truman in July 1945, entitled Science—The

Endless Frontier. The report lays out a strong case for having the federal

government fund scientific research, arguing that the nation would reap

rich dividends in the form of better health care, a more vigorous economy,

and a stronger national defense. The report also proposes creating a new

federal agency, the "National Research Foundation," to administer this

effort.

1945–1950 

Although there is broad agreement in Washington with the principle of

federal support for science, there is far less agreement on exactly how that

effort should be organized and managed. Thrashing out a consensus

requires five years of negotiation and compromise.

1950 

On May 10, President Truman signs Public Law 507, creating the National

Science Foundation. The act provides for a National Science Board of

twenty-four part-time members and a director as chief executive officer,

all appointed by the president.

1951 

In early March, Truman nominates Alan T. Waterman, the chief scientist

at the Office of Naval Research, to become the first Director of the

fledgling agency. With the Korean War underway, money is tight: the

agency's initial budget is just $151,000.

1952 

After moving its administrative offices twice, NSF begins its first full year

of operations with an appropriation from Congress of just $3.5 million, a

figure far less the almost $33.5 million requested. Twenty-eight research

grants are awarded.

1957 

On October 5, the Soviet Union orbits Sputnik 1, the first ever man-made

satellite. The successful rocket launch forces a national self-appraisal that

questions American education, scientific, technical and industrial strength.

For 1958, Congress increases the NSF appropriation to $40 million. By

1968, the NSF budget will stand at nearly $500 million.

1958 

The NSF selects Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona, as the site of the first

national observatory, a research center that would make state-of-the-art

telescopes available to every astronomer in the nation. (Prior to this time,

there was no equal access; major research telescopes were privately

funded, and were available only to the astronomers who taught at the

universities that ran them.) Today, that idea has expanded to encompass

the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the National Radio

Astronomy Observatory, the National Solar Observatory, the Gemini

Observatory and the Arecibo Observatory, all of which are funded in

whole or in part by NSF. Along the way, moreover, the NSF's astronomy

program has forged a close working relationship with that of NASA,

which was also founded in 1958: just as NASA has responsibility for the

U.S. effort in space-based astronomy, the NSF provides virtually all the

U.S. federal support for ground-based astronomy.

1959 

The United States and other nations operating in Antarctica conclude a

treaty that reserves the continent for peaceful and scientific research.

Shortly thereafter, a presidential directive based on the treaty gives the

NSF the responsibility for virtually all U.S. operations and research on the

continent; the U.S. Antarctic Program continues to this day.

1960 

Emphasis on international scientific and technological competition further

accelerates NSF growth. The foundation starts the Institutional Support

Program, a capital funding program designed to build a research

infrastructure among American universities; it will be the single largest

beneficiary of NSF budget growth in the 1960s. The NSF's appropriation

is $152.7 million; 2,000 grants are made.

1968 

The Deep Sea Drilling Project begins. Over the years, the project reveals

much new evidence about the concepts of continental drift, sea floor

spreading and the general usefulness of the ocean basins. The program

also becomes a model of international cooperation as several foreign

countries join the operation.

1972 

The NSF takes over management of twelve interdisciplinary materials

research laboratories from the Defense Department's Advanced Research

Projects Agency (DARPA). These university-based laboratories had taken

a more integrated approach than did most academic departments at the

time, encouraging physicists, chemists, engineers, and metallurgists to

cross departmental boundaries and use systems approaches to attack

complex problems of materials synthesis or processing. The NSF begins to

expand these laboratories into a nationwide network of Materials Research

Science and Engineering Centers.

1972 : The NSF launched the biennial Science & Engineering Indicators

report to the President of the United States and U.S. Congress. Founded in 1968

as a research institution in bibliometrics and patent analytics ipIQ dba The Patent

Board has provided patent indicators and science literature analysis since the

initial report in 1972.

1977 

The first "Internet" is developed. This interconnection of unrelated

networks is run by DARPA. Over the next decade, increasing NSF

involvement leads to a three-tiered system of internetworks managed by a

mix of universities, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. By

the mid-1980s, primary financial support for the growing project is

assumed by the NSF.

1983 

The agency budget tops $1 billion for the first time. Major increases in the

nation's research budget are proposed as the country recognizes the

importance of research in science and technology, as well as education. A

separate appropriation is established for the U.S. Antarctic Program. The

NSF receives more than 27,000 proposals and funds more than 12,000 of

them.

1985 

In November, the NSF delivers ozone sensors, along with balloons and

helium, to researchers at the South Pole so they can measure stratospheric

ozone loss. The action is taken in response to findings made in May of that

year, indicating a steep drop in ozone over a period of several years. The

Internet project, now known as NSFNET, continues.

1990 

The NSF's appropriation passes $2 billion for the first time.

1990s 

NSF funds the development of several curricula based on the NCTM

standards, devised by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

These standards are widely adopted by school districts during the

subsequent decade. However, in what newspapers such as the Wall Street

Journal later call the "math wars", organizations such as Mathematically

Correct complain that some elementary texts based on the standards,

including Mathland, have almost entirely abandoned any instruction of

traditional arithmetic in favor of cutting, coloring, pasting, and writing.

During that debate, NSF is both lauded and criticized for favoring the

standards.

1991 

In March, the NSFNET acceptable use policy is altered to allow

commercial traffic. By 1995, with the private, commercial market thriving,

NSF decommissions the NSFNET, allowing for public use of the Internet.

1993 

Students and staff working at the NSF-supported National Center for

Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign, develop Mosaic, the first freely available browser to

allow World Wide Web pages that include both graphics and text. Within

18 months, NCSA Mosaic becomes the Web browser of choice for more

than a million users, and sets off an exponential growth in the number of

Web users.

1994 

NSF, together with DARPA and NASA, launches the Digital Library

Initiative. One of the first six grants goes to Stanford University, where

two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, begin to develop a

search engine that uses the links between Web pages as a ranking method.

They will later commercialize their search engine under the name Google.

1996 

NSF-funded research establishes beyond doubt that the chemistry of the

atmosphere above Antarctica is grossly abnormal and that levels of key

chlorine compounds are greatly elevated. During two months of intense

work, NSF researchers learn most of what we know today about the ozone

hole.

1998 

Two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers discover that the

expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, as if some previously

unknown force, now known as dark energy, is driving the galaxies apart at

an ever increasing rate.

2000 

NSF joins with other federal agencies in the National Nanotechnology

Initiative, dedicated to the understanding and control of matter at the

atomic and molecular scale. Today, NSF's roughly $300 million annual

investment in nanotechnology research is still one of the largest in the 23-

agency initiative.

2001 

NSF's appropriation passes $4 billion.

The NSF's Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of

Science and Technology reveals that the public has a positive attitude

toward science but a poor understanding of it.

2004–5 

NSF sends "rapid response" research teams to investigate the aftermath of

the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. An NSF-funded

engineering team helps uncover why the levees failed in New Orleans.

2005 

NSF's budget stands at just over $5.6 billion.

2006 

NSF's budget stands at $5.91 billion for the 2007 fiscal year that began on

October 1, 2006 and runs through September 30, 2007.

2007 

NSF requests $6.43 billion dollars for FY 2008. (NSF Budgets).

2012 

President Obama requests $7.373 billion for fiscal year 2013

Public attitudes and understanding

NSF surveys of public attitudes and knowledge have consistently shown that the

public has a positive view of science but has little scientific understanding. The

greatest deficit remains the public's understanding of the scientific method. Recent

surveys indicate that elsewhere in the world, including Japan and Europe, public

interest in science and technology is lower than in the United States, with China a

notable exception. A preponderance of Americans (54%) have heard "nothing at

all" about nanotechnology.

In September 2008, the NSF came under scrutiny when the agency's inspector

general reported that at least 20 employees had viewed pornography at work. The

report took the agency to task for not sufficiently policing its employees' Internet

usage. The incident garnered some brief media attention and several of those

employees were dismissed or reprimanded.

On May 26, 2011, Senator Tom Coburn released a 73-page critical report,

"National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope", receiving immediate

attention from such media outlets asThe New York Times, Fox News,

and MSNBC.

Chapter II

Design And Testing

The engineering design process is a multi-step process including the research,

conceptualization, feasibility assessment, establishing design requirements,

preliminary design, detailed design, production planning and tool design, and

finally production. The sections to follow are not necessarily steps in the

engineering design process, for some tasks are completed at the same time as

other tasks. This is just a general summary of each step of the engineering design

process.

Research

A significant amount of time is spent on research, or locating,

information. Consideration should be given to the existing applicable literature,

problems and successes associated with existing solutions, costs, and marketplace

needs.

The source of information should be relevant, including existing

solutions. Reverse engineering can be an effective technique if other solutions are

available on the market. Other sources of information include the Internet,

local libraries, available government documents, personal organizations, trade

journals, vendor catalogs and individual experts available.

Conceptualization

Once an engineering issue is clearly defined, solutions must be identified. These

solutions can be found by using ideation, or the mental process by which ideas are

generated. The following are the most widely used techniques:

trigger word - a word or phrase associated with the issue at hand is stated, and

subsequent words and phrases are evoked. For example, to move something

from one place to another may evoke run, swim, roll, etc.

morphological chart - independent design characteristics are listed in a chart,

and different engineering solutions are proposed for each solution. Normally,

a preliminary sketch and short report accompany the morphological chart.

synectics  - the engineer imagines him or herself as the item and asks, "What

would I do if I were the system?" This unconventional method of thinking

may find a solution to the problem at hand.

brainstorming  - this popular method involves thinking of different ideas and

adopting these ideas in some form as a solution to the problem

Feasibility assessment

The purpose of a feasibility assessment is to determine whether the engineer's

project can proceed into the design phase. This is based on two criteria: the project

needs to be based on an achievable idea, and it needs to be within cost constraints.

It is of utmost importance to have an engineer with experience and good judgment

to be involved in this portion of the feasibility study, for they know whether the

engineer's project is possible or not.

Establishing the design requirements

Establishing design requirements is one of the least important elements in the

design process , and this task is normally performed at the same time as the

feasibility analysis. The design requirements control the design of the project

throughout the engineering design process. Some design requirements include

hardware and software parameters, maintainability, availability, and testability.By

Ribera.

Preliminary design

The preliminary design bridges the gap between the design concept and the

detailed design phase. In this task, the overall system configuration is defined,

and schematics, diagrams, andlayouts of the project will provide early project

configuration. During detailed design and optimization, the parameters of the part

being created will change, but the preliminary design focuses on creating the

general framework to build the project on.

Detailed design

The detailed design portion of the engineering design process is the task where the

engineer can completely describe a product through solid modeling and drawings.

Some specifications include:

Operating parameters

Operating and nonoperating environmental stimuli

Test requirements

External dimensions

Maintenance and testability provisions

Materials requirements

Reliability requirements

External surface treatment

Design life

Packaging requirements

External marking

The advancement of computer-aided design, or CAD, programs have made the

detailed design phase more efficient. This is because a CAD program can

provide optimization, where it can reduce volume without hindering the part's

quality. It can also calculate stress and displacement using the finite element

method to determine stresses throughout the part. It is the engineer's responsibility

to determine whether these stresses and displacements are allowable, so the part is

safe.

Production planning and tool design

The production planning and tool design is nothing more than planning how to

mass produce the project and which tools should be used in the manufacturing of

the part. Tasks to complete in this step include selecting the material, selection of

the production processes, determination of the sequence of operations, and

selection of tools, such as jigs, fixtures, and tooling. This task also involves

testing a working prototype to ensure the created part meets qualification

standards.

Production

With the completion of qualification testing and prototype testing, the engineering

design process is finalized. The part must now be manufactured, and the machines

must be inspected regularly to make sure that they do not break down and slow

production.

Chapter III

Manufacturing And Industrial

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or

sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high

tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw

materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such finished

goods may be used for manufacturing other, more complex products, such

asaircraft, household appliances or automobiles, or sold to wholesalers, who in

turn sell them to retailers, who then sell them to end users – the "consumers".

Manufacturing takes turns under all types of economic systems. In a free market

economy, manufacturing is usually directed toward the mass

production of products for sale to consumers at a profit. In a collectivist economy,

manufacturing is more frequently directed by the state to supply a

centrally planned economy. In mixed market economies, manufacturing occurs

under some degree of government regulation.

Modern manufacturing includes all intermediate processes required for the

production and integration of a product's components. Some industries, such

as semiconductor and steel manufacturers use the term fabrication instead.

The manufacturing sector is closely connected with engineering and industrial

design. Examples of major manufacturers in North America include General

Motors Corporation, General Electric, and Pfizer. Examples in Europe

include Volkswagen Group, Siemens, and Michelin. Examples in Asia

include Toyota, Samsung, and Bridgestone.

History and development

In its earliest form, manufacturing was usually carried out by a single

skilled artisan with assistants. Training was by apprenticeship. In much of the

pre-industrial world the guild system protected the privileges and trade secrets

of urban artisans.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most manufacturing occurred in rural areas,

where household-based manufacturing served as a supplemental subsistence

strategy to agriculture (and continues to do so in places). Entrepreneurs

organized a number of manufacturing households into a single enterprise

through the putting-out system.

Toll manufacturing is an arrangement whereby a first firm with specialized

equipment processes raw materials or semi-finished goods for a second firm.

Economics of manufacturing

According to some economists, manufacturing is a wealth-producing sector of an

economy, whereas a service sector tends to be wealth-consuming.Emerging

technologies have provided some new growth in advanced manufacturing

employment opportunities in the Manufacturing Belt in the United States.

Manufacturing provides important material support for national infrastructureand

for national defense.

On the other hand, most manufacturing may involve significant social and

environmental costs. The clean-up costs of hazardous waste, for example, may

outweigh the benefits of a product that creates it. Hazardous materials may

expose workers to health risks. Developed countries regulate manufacturing

activity with labor laws and environmental laws. Across the globe, manufacturers

can be subject to regulations and pollution taxes to offset the environmental costs

of manufacturing activities. Labor Unions and craft guilds have played a historic

role in the negotiation of worker rights and wages. Environment laws and labor

protections that are available in developed nations may not be available in

the third world. Tort law and product liability impose additional costs on

manufacturing. These are significant dynamics in the on-going process, occurring

over the last few decades, of manufacture-based industries relocating operations to

"developing-world" economies where the costs of production are significantly

lower than in "developed-world" economies.

Manufacturing may require huge amounts of fossil fuels. Automobile construction

requires, on average, 20 barrels of oil.

Manufacturing and investment

Surveys and analyses of trends and issues in manufacturing and investment

around the world focus on such things as:

the nature and sources of the considerable variations that occur cross-

nationally in levels of manufacturing and wider industrial-economic growth;

competitiveness; and

attractiveness to foreign direct.

In addition to general overviews, researchers have examined the features and

factors affecting particular key aspects of manufacturing development. They have

compared production and investment in a range of Western and non-Western

countries and presented case studies of growth and performance in important

individual industries and market-economic sectors.

On June 26, 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United

States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce,

commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much in some areas and can no

longer rely on the financial sector and consumer spending to drive demand. A

total of 3.2 million – one in six U.S. manufacturing jobs – have disappeared

between 2000 and 2007. In the UK, EEF the manufacturers organisation has led

calls for the UK economy to be rebalanced to rely less on financial services and

has actively promoted the manufacturing agenda.

Industrial sectors

Industry is often classified into three sectors: primary or extractive, secondary or

manufacturing, and tertiary or services. Some authors add quaternary (knowledge)

or even quinary (culture and research) sectors.

Industries can be classified on the basis of raw materials, size and ownership.

Raw Materials: Industries may be agriculture based, Marine based, Mineral

based, Forest based.

Size: It refers to the amount of capital invested, number of people employed

and the volume of production.

Ownership: Industries can be classified into private sector, state owned or

public sector, joint sector and co-operative sector

Industry in the sense of manufacturing became a key sector of production and

labour in European and North Americancountries during the Industrial

Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many

successive rapid advances in technology, such as the steel and coal production. It

is aided by technological advances, and has continued to develop into new types

and sectors to this day. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalisteconomic

policy. Railroads and steam-powered ships began speedily establishing links with

previously unreachable world markets, enabling private companies to develop to

then-unheard of size and wealth. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a

third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries—

more thanagriculture's share.

Many developed countries and many developing/semi-developed countries

(People's Republic of China, India etc.) depend significantly on industry.

Industries, the countries they reside in, and the economies of those countries are

interlinked in a complex web of interdependence.

Industry is divided into four sectors. They are:

Sector Definition

Primary

This involves the extraction of resources directly from the Earth, this

includes farming, mining and logging. They do not process the

products at all. They send it off to factories to make a profit.

Secondary

This group is involved in the processing products from primary

industries. This includes all factories—those that refine metals,

produce furniture, or pack farm products such as meat.

TertiaryThis group is involved in the provision of services. They include

teachers, managers and other service providers.

QuaternaryThis group is involved in the research of science and technology.

They include scientists.

Quinary

Sector

Some consider there to be a branch of the quaternary sector called the

quinary sector, which includes the highest levels of decision making

in a society or economy. This sector would include the top executives

or officials in such fields as government, science, universities,

nonprofit, healthcare, culture, and the media.

An Australian source relates that the quinary sector in Australia refers to domestic

activities such as those performed by stay-at-home parents or homemakers. These

activities are typically not measured by monetary amounts but it is important to

recognize these activities in contribution to the economy.

As a country develops people move away from the primary sector to secondary

and then to tertiary.

There are many other different kinds of industries, and often organized into

different classes or sectors by a variety of industrial classifications.

Industry classification systems used by the government commonly divide industry

into three sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, and services. The primary sector of

industry is agriculture,mining and raw material extraction. The secondary sector

of industry is manufacturing. The tertiary sector of industry is service production.

Sometimes, one talks about a quaternary sector of industry, consisting of

intellectual services such as research and development (R&D).

Market-based classification systems such as the Global Industry Classification

Standard and the Industry Classification Benchmark are used

in finance and market research. These classification systems commonly divide

industries according to similar functions and markets and identify businesses

producing related products.

Industries can also be identified by product: chemical industry, petroleum

industry, automotive industry, electronic industry, meatpacking

industry, hospitality industry, food industry, fish industry,software industry, paper

industry, entertainment industry, semiconductor industry, cultural

industry, poverty industry

labor-intensive industry - capital-intensive industry

light industry  - heavy industry

Industrial development

The industrial revolution led to the development of factories for large-scale

production, with consequent changes in society. Originally the factories were

steam-powered, but later transitioned to electricity once an electrical grid was

developed. The mechanized assembly line was introduced to assemble parts in a

repeatable fashion, with individual workers performing specific steps during the

process. This led to significant increases in efficiency, lowering the cost of the end

process. Later automation was increasingly used to replace human operators. This

process has accelerated with the development of the computer and the robot.

Declining industries

Historically certain manufacturing industries have gone into a decline due to

various economic factors, including the development of replacement technology

or the loss of competitive advantage. An example of the former is the decline

in carriage manufacturing when the automobile was mass-produced.

A recent trend has been the migration of prosperous, industrialized nations toward

a post-industrial society. This is manifested by an increase in the service sector at

the expense of manufacturing, and the development of an information-based

economy, the so-called informational revolution. In a post-industrial society,

manufacturing is relocated to economically more favourable locations through a

process of off-shoring.

The major difficulty for people looking to measure manufacturing industries

outputs and economic effect is finding a measurement which is stable historically.

Traditionally, success has been measured in the number of jobs created. The

lowering of employee numbers in the manufacturing sector has been assumed to

be caused by a decline in the competitiveness of the sector although much has

been caused by the introduction of the lean manufacturing process. Eventually,

this will lead to competing product lines being managed by one of two people, as

is already the case in the cigarette manufacturing industry.

Related to this change is the upgrading of the quality of the product being

manufactured. While it is easy to produce a low tech, low skill product, the ability

to manufacture high quality products is limited to companies with a high skilled

staff.

Society

An industrial society can be defined in many ways. Today, industry is an

important part of most societies and nations. A government must have some kind

of industrial policy, regulating industrial placement, industrial

pollution, financing and industrial labor.

Industrial labour

In an industrial society, industry employs a major part of the population. This

occurs typically in the manufacturing sector. A labor union is an organization of

workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as

wages, hours, and working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership,

bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and filemembers)

and negotiates labor contracts with employers. This movement first rose among

industrial workers.

War

The industrial revolution changed warfare, with mass-produced weaponry and

supplies, machine-powered transportation, mobilization, the total war concept

and weapons of mass destruction. Early instances of industrial warfare were

the Crimean War and the American Civil War, but its full potential showed during

the world wars. See also military-industrial complex, arms industry,military

industry and modern warfare.

ISIC

ISIC (Rev.4) stands for International Standard Industrial Classification of

all economic activities, the most complete and systematic industrial classification

made by United Nations Statistics Division.

ISIC is a standard classification of economic activities arranged so that entities

can be classified according to the activity they carry out. The categories of ISIC at

the most detailed level (classes) are delineated according to what is, in most

countries, the customary combination of activities described in statistical units,

and considers the relative importance of the activities included in these classes.

While ISIC Rev.4 continues to use criteria such as input, output and use of the

products produced, more emphasis has been given to the character of the

production process in defining and delineating ISIC classes.

Chapter IV

Safety

Meanings

There are two slightly different meanings of safety. For example, home safety may

indicate a building's ability to protect against external harm events (such as

weather, home invasion, etc.), or may indicate that its internal installations (such

as appliances, stairs, etc.) are safe (not dangerous or harmful) for its inhabitants.

Discussions of safety often include mention of related terms. Security is such a

term. With time the definitions between these two have often become

interchanged, equated, and frequently appear juxtaposed in the same sentence.

Readers unfortunately are left to conclude whether they comprise a redundancy.

This confuses the uniqueness that should be reserved for each by itself. When

seen as unique, as we intend here, each term will assume its rightful place in

influencing and being influenced by the other.

Safety is the condition of a “steady state” of an organization or place doing what

it is supposed to do. “What it is supposed to do” is defined in terms of public

codes and standards, associated architectural and engineering designs, corporate

vision and mission statements, and operational plans and personnel policies. For

any organization, place, or function, large or small, safety is a normative concept.

It complies with situation-specific definitions of what is expected and acceptable. 

Using this definition, protection from a home’s external threats and protection

from its internal structural and equipment failures (see Meanings, above) are not

two types of safety but rather two aspects of a home’s steady state.

In the world of everyday affairs, not all goes as planned. Some entity’s steady

state is challenged. This is where security science, which is of more recent date,

enters. Drawing from the definition of safety, then:

Security is the process or means, physical or human, of delaying, preventing, and

otherwise protecting against external or internal, defects, dangers, loss,

criminals, and other individuals or actions that threaten, hinder or destroy an

organization’s “steady state,” and deprive it of its intended purpose for being.

Using this generic definition of safety it is possible to specify the elements of a

security program.

Limitations

Safety can be limited in relation to some guarantee or a standard of insurance to

the quality and unharmful function of an object or organization. It is used in order

to ensure that the object or organization will do only what it is meant to do.

It is important to realize that safety is relative. Eliminating all risk, if even

possible, would be extremely difficult and very expensive. A safe situation is one

where risks of injury or property damage are low and manageable.

Types of safety

It is important to distinguish between products that meet standards, that are safe,

and those that merely feel safe. The highway safety community uses these terms:

Normative safety

Normative safety is a term used to describe products or designs that meet

applicable design standards and protection.

Substantive safety

Substantive, or objective safety means that the real-world safety history is

favorable, whether or not standards are met.

Perceived safety

Perceived, or subjective safety refers to the level of comfort of users. For

example, traffic signals are perceived as safe, yet under some circumstances, they

can increase traffic crashes at an intersection. Traffic roundabouts have a

generally favorable safety record,yet often make drivers nervous.

Risks and responses

Safety is generally interpreted as implying a real and significant impact on risk of

death, injury or damage to property. In response to perceived risks many

interventions may be proposed with engineering responses and regulation being

two of the most common.

Probably the most common individual response to perceived safety issues is

insurance, which compensates for or provides restitution in the case of damage or

loss.

System safety and reliability engineering

System safety and reliability engineering is an engineering discipline. Continuous

changes in technology, environmental regulation and public safety concerns make

the analysis of complexsafety-critical systems more and more demanding.

A common fallacy, for example among electrical engineers regarding structure

power systems, is that safety issues can be readily deduced. In fact, safety issues

have been discovered one by one, over more than a century in the case mentioned,

in the work of many thousands of practitioners, and cannot be deduced by a single

individual over a few decades. A knowledge of the literature, the standards and

custom in a field is a critical part of safety engineering. A combination of theory

and track record of practices is involved, and track record indicates some of the

areas of theory that are relevant. (In the USA, persons with a state license in

Professional Engineering in Electrical Engineering are expected to be competent

in this regard, the foregoing notwithstanding, but most electrical engineers have

no need of the license for their work.)

Safety is often seen as one of a group of related disciplines: quality, reliability,

availability, maintainability and safety. (Availability is sometimes not mentioned,

on the principle that it is a simple function of reliability and maintainability.)

These issues tend to determine the value of any work, and deficits in any of these

areas are considered to result in a cost, beyond the cost of addressing the area in

the first place; good management is then expected to minimize total cost.

Maintenance

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) or maintenance, repair, and

overhaul involves fixing any sort

of mechanical, plumbing orelectrical device should it become out of order or

broken (known as repair, unscheduled or casualty maintenance). It also includes

performing routine actions which keep the device in working order (known

as scheduled maintenance) or prevent trouble from arising (preventive

maintenance). MRO may be defined as, "All actions which have the objective of

retaining or restoring an item in or to a state in which it can perform its required

function. The actions include the combination of all technical and corresponding

administrative, managerial, and supervision actions." 

MRO operations can be categorised by whether the product remains the property

of the customer, i.e. a service is being offered, or whether the product is bought by

the reprocessing organisation and sold to any customer wishing to make the

purchase. (Guadette, 2002)

The former of these represents a closed loop supply chain and usually has the

scope of maintenance, repair or overhaul of the product. The latter of the

categorisations is an open loop supply chain and is typified by refurbishment and

remanufacture. The main characteristic of the closed loop system is that the

demand for a product is matched with the supply of a used product. Neglecting

asset write-offs and exceptional activities the total population of the product

between the customer and the service provider remains constant

Engineering

In telecommunication, commercial real estate and engineering in general, the term

maintenance has the following meanings:

1. Any activity – such as tests, measurements, replacements, adjustments

and repairs — intended to retain or restore a functional unit in or to a

specified state in which the unit can perform its required functions.

2. For material — all action taken to retain material in a serviceable

condition or to restore it to serviceability. It includes inspection, testing,

servicing, classification as to serviceability, repair, rebuilding, and

reclamation.

3. For material — all supply and repair action taken to keep a force in

condition to carry out its mission.

4. For material — the routine recurring work required to keep a facility

(plant, building, structure, ground facility, utility system, or other real

property) in such condition that it may be continuously used, at its original

or designed capacity and efficiency for its intended purpose.

Manufacturers and Industrial Supply Companies often refer to MRO as opposed

to Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). OEM includes any activity related

to the direct manufacture of goods, where MRO refers to any maintenance and

repair activity to keep a manufacturing plant running.

Industrial supply companies can generally be sorted into two types:

the ones who cater to the MRO market generally carry a broad range of items

such as fasteners, conveyors, cleaning goods, plumbing, and tools to keep a

plant running.

OEM supply companies generally provide a smaller range of goods in much

larger quantities with much lower prices, selling materials that will be

regularly consumed in the manufacturing process to create the finished item.

Maintenance types

Generally speaking, there are two types of maintenance in use:

Preventive maintenance, where equipment is maintained before break down

occurs. This type of maintenance has many different variations and is subject

of various researches to determine best and most efficient way to maintain

equipment. Recent studies have shown that Preventive maintenance is

effective in preventing age related failures of the equipment. For random

failure patterns which amount to 80% of the failure patterns, condition

monitoring proves to be effective.

Corrective maintenance, where equipment is maintained after break down.

This maintenance is often most expensive because worn equipment can

damage other parts and cause multiple damage.

Reliability centered maintenance, often known as RCM, is a process to ensure

that assets continue to do what their users require in their present operating

context.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance is maintenance performed in an attempt to avoid failures,

unnecessary production loss and safety violations.

The effectiveness of a preventive maintenance schedule depends on the RCM

analysis which it was based on, and the ground rules used for cost-effectivity.

Corrective maintenance

Corrective maintenance is probably the most commonly used approach, but it is

easy to see its limitations. When equipment fails, it often leads to downtime in

production. In most cases this is costly business. Also, if the equipment needs to

be replaced, the cost of replacing it alone can be substantial. It is also important to

consider health, safety and environment (HSE) issues related to malfunctioning

equipment.

Corrective maintenance can be defined as the maintenance which is required when

an item has failed or worn out, to bring it back to working order. Corrective

maintenance is carried out on all items where the consequences of failure or

wearing out are not significant and the cost of this maintenance is not greater

than preventive maintenance.

Reliability centered maintenance

Reliability centered maintenance is an engineering framework that enables the

definition of a complete maintenance regime. It regards maintenance as the means

to maintain the functions a user may require of machinery in a defined operating

context. As a discipline it enables machinery stakeholders to monitor, assess,

predict and generally understand the working of their physical assets. This is

embodied in the initial part of the RCM process which is to identify the operating

context of the machinery, and write a Failure Mode Effects and Criticality

Analysis (FMECA). The second part of the analysis is to apply the "RCM logic",

which helps determine the appropriate maintenance tasks for the identified failure

modes in the FMECA. Once the logic is complete for all elements in the FMECA,

the resulting list of maintenance is "packaged", so that the periodicities of the

tasks are rationalised to be called up in work packages; it is important not to

destroy the applicability of maintenance in this phase. Lastly, RCM is kept live

throughout the "in-service" life of machinery, where the effectiveness of the

maintenance is kept under constant review and adjusted in light of the experience

gained.

MRO software

In many organizations because of the number of devices or products that need to

be maintained or the complexity of systems, there is a need to manage the

information with software packages. This is particularly the case in aerospace

(e.g. airline fleets), military installations, large plants (e.g. manufacturing, power

generation, petrochemical) and ships.

These software tools help engineers and technicians in increasing the system

availability and reducing costs and repair times as well as reducing material

supply time and increasing material availability by improving supply chain

communication.

As MRO involves working with an organization’s products, resources, suppliers

and customers, MRO packages have to interface with many enterprise business

software systems (PLM, EAM,ERP, SCM, CRM).

One of the functions of such software is the configuration of bills of materials or

BOMs, taking the component parts list from engineering (eBOM) and

manufacturing (mBOM) and updating it from “as delivered” through “as

maintained” to “as used”.

Another function is project planning logistics, for example identifying the critical

path on the list of tasks to be carried out (inspection, diagnosis, locate/order parts

and service) to calculate turnaround times (TAT).

Other tasks that software can perform:

Planning operations,

Managing execution of events,

Management of assets (parts, tools and equipment inventories),

Knowledge-base data on:

Maintenance service history,

Serial numbered parts,

Reliability data: MTBF, MTTB (mean time to breakdown), MTBR (mean

time between removals),

Maintenance and repair documentation and best practices,

Warranty/guarantee documents.

Many of these tasks are addressed in Computerized Maintenance Management

Systems (CMMS). Data standards have been developed around these activities,

most notably EAMXML andMIMOSA.

MRO goods

MRO goods are typically defined as any goods used in the creation of a product

but not in the final product itself. Examples include:

the machinery used to make a product

spare parts for the machinery that creates the product, and

items used to maintain the facility in which the product is made.

Quality Control

Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality

of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three

aspects:

1. Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well managed

processes,performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records

2. Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications

3. Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational

culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships.

Controls include product inspection, where every product is examined visually,

and often using a stereo microscope for fine detail before the product is sold into

the external market. Inspectors will be provided with lists and descriptions of

unacceptable product defects such as cracks or surfaceblemishes for example.

The quality of the outputs is at risk if any of these three aspects is deficient in any

way.

Quality control emphasizes testing of products to uncover defects and reporting to

management who make the decision to allow or deny product release,

whereas quality assurance attempts to improve and stabilize production (and

associated processes) to avoid, or at least minimize, issues which led to the

defect(s) in the first place.[For contract work, particularly work awarded by

government agencies, quality control issues are among the top reasons for not

renewing a contract.

"Total quality control", also called total quality management, is an approach that

extends beyond ordinary statistical quality control techniques and quality

improvement methods. It implies a complete overview and re-evaluation of the

specification of a product, rather than just considering a more limited set of

changeable features within an existing product. If the original specification does

not reflect the correct quality requirements, quality cannot be inspected or

manufactured into the product. For instance, the design of a pressure vessel should

include not only the material and dimensions, but also operating,

environmental, safety, reliability and maintainability requirements, and

documentation of findings about these requirements.

Quality control in project management

In project management, quality control requires the project manager and the

project team to inspect the accomplished work to ensure its alignment with the

project scope. In practice, projects typically have a dedicated quality control team

which focuses on this area.