For a manufacturing organization to compete effectively in the global marketplace, a strong product development process is essential. An important ingredient in the product development process is the identification and subsequent optimization of those product characteristics which denote quality. Relying upon inspection and testing to ensure product quality is inefficient and expensive. Rather, quality should be built into the design of the product. Consequently, product quality characteristics must be optimized during the product development process. Typically, there are several product quality characteristics which are important indicators of quality, and one or more of the quality characteristics may require optimization of both mean and variance. This paper describes the application of the methodologies available for optimization of quality characteristics in product development: Taguchi\u27s Methods, mathematical programming, and response surface methodology. The utilization of each technique for optimization of a single quality characteristic and for optimization of both the mean and variance of multiple quality characteristics is described
