During the past 20 years, there has been steady growth not only in the service sector but also in the service content of most products. Traditional manufacturing companies have become more dependent on the services they provide and this part of their business is very important for their business result. A large proportion of the activities in these traditional manufacturing companies consists of activities related to services. This will place new demands on how these organizations work with quality management and on how they manage their product development process. With an increased attention to services, the ability to incorporate new knowledge regarding the service part of products in product development will become all the more important.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to contribute empirical evidence and knowledge in quality management. During the course of the research process, both survey and case study research have been conducted. Two of the surveys are cross-sectional investigations of quality practices in Swedish organizations. The third study using survey data is an investigation of the relationship between quality and customer satisfaction. The three case studies have been conducted in order to better understand how Swedish organizations work to improve their product development process.

A contribution of this research is the framework for linking quality practices to performance. Such a framework makes it possible to identify how product and service companies are both similar and different with respect to the effects of quality practices on customer satisfaction and business results. The results of the empirical investigation show that quality management processes work differently depending on the product versus service nature of a company and the associated production processes.

In addition, a quality perspective on continuous improvement in product development is presented. The investigation of improvement programs and quality principles shows that there are distinct differences between the three case companies. Different quality principles are promoted and the meaning of the quality principles is different. The research strengthens the claim that organizations introducing improvement programs without considering the related quality principles cannot expect the same results as organizations where improvement programs and principles work in harmony.