What Is Quality?: Quality Standards & Concepts | Viquepedia

Achievement of the required standard was attested to by the application of the mark of the Superintendent of the Necropolis. In the case of Tutankhamen Opens in new window, we find what is probably the world’s oldest and most famous quality failure. He was buried in a hurry, and the marks on two of the beds used in the embalming process show that the horizontal members were transposed—a situation that has parallels in modern industry.

The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi Opens in new window, who was responsible for the vast, underground, terra-cotta army at Mount Li, decreed that all goods supplied for use in the imperial household should carry a mark that identified the maker so that if an item proved faulty he could be identified and punished (Durant, 1954). This was, indeed, a form of third-party certification.

In the Roman era we find for a first time that the external audit is instituted and specialists known as Argenterii—dealers in silver—were required to keep certain records (Corn, 1968). On the other hand, the Bible gives us the byword of quality systems: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

During the Byzantine EmpireOpens in new window we find that every action was regulated by procedures that had to be followed to the letter. To enforce these procedures, the local governor had attached to his court retinue an official inspector, a Logothete, who was charged with the inspection of all workshops and operations performed in the district. If such an inspection disclosed an infraction of the rules, the Logothete would have the culprit brought to trial (Guerdan, 1956).