Quality is becoming more and more important. The technical systems are becoming more complex and man's mistrust in these systems is increasing. If automation is to increase, there must be zero defects. Environmental protection calls for the protection of natural resources by manufacturing durable products which can be recycled. High wages and salaries necessitate high productivity, which, in turn, can only be achieved by a reduction in the depth of production. For this reason "total quality" is becoming more and more important although micro economics refer to it without any parameters as a psychologically acceptable term (Manz). In actual fact it depends on the parameters being measured. These include the number, type and cost of complaints.

The reason why this topic is of particular interest to me is that our company, as a formulator and applicator of reaction polymers for industrial floors, occasionally has to battle with complaints. As far as I am concerned, complaints have always, for 30 years now, been a sign of mistaken quality policy. One could now maintain that a few complaints among 20,000 sq. m of industrial floor a month is quite "normal" but I refuse to tag along with this unfortunately widespread opinion. At our company complaints (commercial or technical ones) are the exception. They are a matter for senior management who hand them over to the Quality Management Officer so that he can carry out a thorough check on procedures. All the procedures are examined to see whether they can possibly be improved. It has become apparent that we have been able to continuously improve the degree of customer satisfaction.