1. Define quality for management and control purposes, define the two primary components of quality.

2. What are the reasons that the cost of poor quality reached an epidemic level before U.S. companies were motivated to do something about the problem in the 1980s?

3. What is TQM? At what point can a firm consider its effort to achieve total quality management complete?

4. What is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the ISO 9000 certificate? Why do many firms in the United States seek them?

5. In what respect are traditional accounting systems deficient in terms of the goal of managing and controlling quality?