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Price has traditionally been the order‐winning criterion for ready‐to‐assemble (RTA) products such as furniture, bicycles, kit models, etc. In order to be able to compete in today’s demanding RTA market, manufacturers must increasingly emphasize quality, not price, as the order‐winning criterion. On the other hand, the order winners for external customers are time‐based – speed of delivery and flexibility. In this paper, we discuss the dimensions of RTA products’ quality. In addition, we discuss changes in business processes, information flow and information technology necessary to effectively improve the competitiveness of RTA manufacturers.

The QS 9000 quality system was developed in the United States in 1994 by a team consisting of representatives of General Motors, Ford, and Daimler‐Chrysler as well as the US truck manufacturers. The objective of the system is to standardize the quality system requirements and documentation developed and maintained by US auto‐motive suppliers. In this paper we review the philosophy and the structure of QS 9000 automotive quality standards and examine the relationship between ISO 9001, QS 9000 and TQM. We also analyze the costs and benefits from quality system certification and present practical experiences of selected US automotive suppliers related to the development and implementation of ISO 9001 and QS 9000 requirements.

The problems involved in assembly of packaged ready‐to‐assemble (RTA) products such as bicycles, furniture, etc., are well known. Some of the factors that contribute to the difficulty in assembly are unclear assembly instructions and poor grouping of parts in packages. Typically, RTA products are packed in one bulky carton with some parts, such as hardware, grouped in a separate package within the carton. As a result, consumers often spend a significant portion of the assembly time on searching for the right part. Through an experimental study we demonstrate that the assembly time can be significantly reduced by forming logical part groups (packages within the carton) according to the sequence of assembly operations. Our result is significant in the context of recent surveys that indicate customer dissatisfaction with the assembly of RTA products.

Ready‐to‐assemble products such as exercise bicycles and furniture have successfully been marketed to customers as a low‐cost alternative to fully assembled ones. Due to the difficulty of assembling the newer and complex products that are currently in demand, recent surveys suggest that a low‐cost strategy alone is inadequate to satisfy, let alone exceed, customer expectations. Research has shown that assembly time could be reduced if parts are grouped appropriately. Providing a grouping methodology for simplifying the assembly process for customers, without hampering the low‐cost manufacturing objective, is the aim of the research. Methodology, which is easy to implement on a computer, is significant due to the practicality of the problem in a fast‐growing industry.