For more than 10 years at my current company, my title was vice president of manufacturing and quality manager. Traditionally, manufacturing managers are portrayed as the guys trying to shove product out the door and quality managers are portrayed as the guys desperately trying to keep bad product from shipping. Some people say that having the manufacturing manager in charge of quality is like letting the fox guard the hen house. To the contrary, I've found that having both responsibilities has allowed me to make cultural and process changes that lead to tremendous improvements in productivity and quality. However, a balance needs to be maintained.