SUMMARY
This article evaluates the influence that quality concepts and tools in a manufacturingenvironment may have on parameters possibly affecting the future design and developmentof products in the same company. It attempts to establish how quality results can beutilised to determine the level of quality control tools used, such as Quality FunctionDeployment and Concurrent Engineering, in a company that designs for manufacture. Byestablishing links from quality results and customer requirements, the research determineswhat critical quality tools are necessary to determine the capability to manufacture anitem without the use of excessive planning resources.