Fundamentals of Quality Work in Companies. The new quality consciousness originating in Japan, and meanwhile adopted by the industrialised countries of the west, goes far beyond mere adherence to agreed technical criteria. All departments of a company are to be included in the quality assurance system in order to prevent errors from arising in the first place. The introduction of quality assurance systems must be instigated by top management and go down from there to all employees. Above all in the case of companies with highly complex structures, an internal customer-supplier relationship should be developed which corresponds to that between the company and its customers. It makes good sense to incorporate existing activities into the quality assurance system. Since customer demands change with time, quality improvement must be approached as a dynamic process.