A good way to improve relations with the Quality department and other departments such as the R&D department, is to spend more time in the planning phase. Here you can create a more detailed outline of what is expected from each department, what each department will do and what risk and problems each department may run into. If you can anticipate the risk and future problems you may run into, then when the time comes and the R&D department does run into a problem it will be anticipated and Quality will have an easier time getting R&D to adjust their procedures. Having good communication between the two departments is also important so that they are working together the whole time rather than one department trying to tell the other department what to do. I agree with Monica I think that all departments should spend more time receiving training from the Quality department so that you can minimize the future issues from a department making a mistake. If Quality leads the training then if a mistake is made it can be traced back to Quality not instructing the other departments correctly and can put equal pressure on all departments to make sure that all regulations are known and followed. Quality needs to be there every step of the way so that if a change needs to be made it does not have to be a major change that sets back the whole project.