Response

摘要

In our paper, we have attempted to outline some of the problems on the boundaries of the fields of quality control/improvement and optimization. Our intent was to initiate discussion and provide a starting point for further research. We feel as if we have had some success towards attaining this goal, and we would like to thank all of the discussants for their participation. Their insightful remarks significantly improved the presentation of the material, and provided exactly the kind of valuable discussion we were hoping for. Several of the discussants were also referees for the original version of the manuscript, and we are appreciative of their helpful criticism on the previous version of the paper.