Although quality management has been around in some form or another for thousands of years—a cover of Joseph Juran’s Quality Handbook depicted Egyptians making very precise measurements for the construction of pyramids—this article will show that quality is but one aspect of value, which should be our true focus.

The General Services Administration told us more than 30 years ago that “…‘best value’ is represented by an item or process that consistently performs the required basic function and has the lowest total cost” (emphasis is mine). The Society of American Value Engineers (SAVE International) defines value as “function performance divided by resources,” which looks like a good bottom-line metric. Poor quality detracts from value, adds costs, and wastes resources, but is but one aspect of a much larger and more comprehensive problem. We must therefore expand the focus of our attention accordingly.

 …