Martin Filler Quotes

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.

Any design, whether it's for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures.

If I was influenced by anything, it was architecture: structure having to do with logic. If you don't do it right, the whole thing is going to cave in. In a certain sense, you can carry that to graphic design. Fortunately, however, nobody is going to die if you do it wrong.

There's no worse feeling than seeing my buildings and realizing the mistakes.

I am not a supporter of the rhetoric of, 'Dear, dear, the toys have got lead paint.' If I had a manufacturer in China that allowed that to happen, I'd fire them instantly.

Laboratories can reduce risk by implementing a proven and internationally accepted quality assurance technology that is applicable across the globe.

I'm going to have to be impressed and feel confident in the people I'm handing a book to - or I'm not going to do it. Once you hand it to them, you're out. You have no control over it.

The emphasis on innovation and technology in our companies has resulted in a few of them establishing global benchmarks in product design and development, manufacturing practices and human resource capabilities. However, there is no room for complacency.

We are constantly working towards the highest level of compliance possible.

I always assign auditors to strictly supervise the businesses.

I wouldn't build a building if it wasn't of interest to me as a potential work of art. Why should I?

How can any company know if its processes, products, people are safe? Only if everyone is watching and telling the truth. The first part can be assumed; the second cannot.

There are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do. Two categories - simple.

I wonder sometimes if manufacturers of foolproof items keep a fool or two on their payroll to test things.

We concluded that one thing we can do is to just go through the locker room and make sure that if anybody is using anything, it's a product from one of the approved manufacturers.

Everybody in the real world will agree - the moment a project is behind deadline, quality assurance tends to go out the window.

My father was a construction engineer, and my mother was a production engineer.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

I think there is a sort of box-ticking mentality. Not just in the teaching profession. You hear about it in medicine and nursing. It's a lawyer-driven insistence on meeting prescribed standards rather than just being a good doctor.

As we were growing retail, and it was a huge growth phase, it was very important to keep our quality under control. Therefore, it was not just distribution, not just back-office operations, but also the risk-management practices. And these we learned together, supported by technology.

We are constantly auditing our supply chain. Making sure that safety standards are - are, you know, are the highest. We're making sure that working conditions are the highest.

When something's made in the smallest volume - as a one-off couture piece - or in large quantities, deep care is critical to determine authentic, successful design and, ultimately, manufacture.

Our goal is to set the gold standard when it comes to compliance.

Being in compliance with industry standards is less than 5 percent of what companies need to do to make food safe. Company after company finds that out after they have events.

It's your career, your face, your name. You have to be in control because if something gets messed up or something doesn't look how you want it to, you're the only one to blame.