Quality After Sale Requires Up-Front Planning

Unlike the world of medicine, where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, in the acquisition of state-of-the-art telecommunications hardware and software, an ounce of up-front planning can prevent a ton of slipped schedules, lost revenues, maintenance costs, engineering complaints, product change notices and end-customer dissatisfaction. Our work with AT&T Communications to improve the "quality after sale" that it receives from its suppliers is built on a quality management system that focuses on up-front work in three areas.