Craftsmanship evaluation in automotive products

Intense competition in the market place is forcing a change in the paradigm of quality. Consumers, more than ever, demand high quality products. Often , this demand in quality is explicitly or implicitly expressed in craftsman ship. Other than traditional hand crafted products, craftsmanship is not we ll recognized in common consumer products. Companies do not generally under stand the role of craftsmanship and have no systematic means for assessing craftsmanship. Fine craftsmanship and mass production are sometimes even co nsidered mutually exclusive. This paper studied the craftsmanship issue in automotive products. It explored various aspects of craftsmanship and propo sed a methodology for its assessment. A computer-based system was developed to evaluate craftsmanship of automotive products using qualitative assessm ents. Individual bias toward assessment on craftsmanship was investigated t hrough designed experiments. The impact of consumers demographic background on craftsmanship assessment was analyzed.