First I would like to acknowledge all of the Stanford students who took a series of courses that not only gave me the opportunity to think about the topic of product quality with them, but also provided me with excellent feedback on the course notes that became the basis for this book. This series began in 1984 with a course entitled Technology and Aesthetics, which I taught in the Stanford Values, Technology, Science and Society (VTSS) program, initially ably abetted by Barry Katz, then a lecturer in the program and now a professor of humanities and design at California College of the Arts. Beginning in 1993 this course was listed in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Stanford as well as in VTSS as Quality and the Products of Industry. In 1997 it was renamed Good Products, Bad Products, and since 2000 it has been taught by my good friend and colleague Professor David Beach, director of the Product Realization Lab in the Design Group of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford, who has redesigned the course to suit his own style and thinking but has retained some of the previous structure and has continued to use my notes. Should any former students be reading this, thank you—I hope you had as much fun and learned as much in the course as I did.
On the publication side I would like to thank my agent, John Willig of Literary Services, who found the book an appreciative home; Stephanie Frerich, enthusiastic acquisition editor of McGraw-Hill Professional, who shepherded the book through the publication process; Zachary Gajewski, development editor, who did a heroic job of cutting out extraneous material, tightening the text, and generally turning the manuscript into a much more reasonable book; Charles Fisher and the production group, who polished it and put it together; and Julia Baxter and Ann Pryor, who helped make the world aware of it.
I am grateful to several people who read and commented on all or parts of the notes and the manuscript, including not only David Beach but also Naushad Forbes, CEO, Steam Engineering Businesses, Forbes Marshall, Inc., in Pune India, a close friend and former Ph.D. student who repeatedly ordered me to write this book and put the original course notes to work in his company (calling them Jim’s rules), giving me invaluable feedback on their usefulness; Professor Sheri Sheppard, my number one writing critic in the Design Group at Stanford; Bob Adams, director of Business Partnerships for Sustainable Conservation (a nonprofit) and a farmer; Dev Patnaik, cofounder and chief executive of Jump Associates, a growth strategy firm in San Mateo, California; and last but certainly not least, my wife, Marian Adams, who reads, comments upon, and edits everything I write because she loves me and because I become grumpy if she does not.