Gives guidelines to improve quality of mechanical equipment. It is intended to benefit users, contractors and suppliers alike and to facilitate improved relationships between them by promoting trust, teamwork, and communication. A three-part approach is described in this publication consisting of (a) the traditional methods used to help assure quality; (b) techniques that can be used to identify those suppliers who have quality systems so effective that intense user involvement is unnecessary and (c) suggestions on how users, contractors, and suppliers can work together to improve quality.