The globalization of commerce has combined with the new dominance of custom
er demands and the need for shareholder value to force the pace of change i
n manufacturing and service industries. Production now entails fitting of a
productive process to the needs of remote customers and demanding sharehol
ders, while ensuring the correct mix of human and technology in the product
ion process. Production now encompasses service industries, which provide t
he majority of employment in the industrialized countries. The human in the
production process implies ergonomics. Pressures from globalization, custo
mer and shareholder appear to be in conflict but, in fact, all are demandin
g a combination of function, reliability, price and productivity. The combi
nation desired might change between stakeholders, but the overriding metric
is quality. Quality is a function of technological and human factors, and
is greatly influenced by ergonomics in its broadest sense. Errors in the pr
ocess can arise from many human/system interactions and result in product u
nreliability, poor productivity or even injury to the workforce or product
user. This paper shows examples of quality as the system goal that can driv
e systems to meet the global demands, and of how quality and ergonomics are
intimately related in production systems.