A web-enabled collaborative quality management system

To cope with increasingly rapid globalization, more outsourcing, and reduced product development cycle time, various kinds of new approaches and tools have been introduced and applied. This paper proposes the concept of collaborative quality management as an extension of currently available quality management techniques. The concept provides an effective approach to collaboratively carry out quality management activities throughout the entire product life cycle. The conceptual model, process model, and multi-agent system technology for the collaboration mechanism in quality management are presented. A prototype system has been developed and tested with the Web for life cycle collaborative quality management. The function models for the system have been examined and configured. In addition, the issues of system architecture, relevant key technologies, and system integration are discussed in detail. Finally, an example study with a high-pressure oil pump from a Ford Motor Co. automobile illustrates the benefit of the system.