In pursuit of vendor quality excellence [telecommunication products]

GTE Telephone Operations (Telops) employs a vendor quality process which effectively builds strong customer/vendor partnerships focused on quality. The author discusses the vendor partnerships in quality. As a partner in quality, GTE asks its vendors to rate Telops as a customer. GTE wants to do what it can to become its vendors´ customer of choice. This mutual drive for standards of excellence, through which high-quality, high-volume, long-term business relationships can emerge, is the definition of GTE/vendor partnership in quality. Results over the past few years illustrate the effectiveness of GTE Telops´ approach to vendor and product quality