Ronald J. Bowen is president of Quality Station Inc., a consulting firm specializing in quality management and environmental management systems implementation and internal auditing. He spent 46 years with GM on a career path that included the titles of journeyman diemaker, production supervisor, CLCD quality engineer, divisional senior methods analyst, plant lead internal auditor, and QS-9000 and ISO 14001 implementation manager. Bowen is also a co-author of the new Paton Press (www.patonpress.com) book, The ISO/TS 16949:2002 Answer Book.

The author specially thanks Roderick Munro, William Harral, John Gordon Hudson, James Doebereiner, Lloyd Brumfield, Leslie Glasco and the American Society for Quality Saginaw Section 1004 for their contributions to this article.