An Introduction to Quality

- What is Quality? - Why is Quality Important? - How can Quality be Achieved?

What is Quality?
Quality is what gives complete customer satisfaction (to every customer: industrial
buyer, local authority, government department, student or overseas shipping magnate).
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Some customers' needs are sophisticated, others much less so, but all will judge the quality of what they buy and how well their needs and expectations are satisfied.

There is no such thing as absolute quality

It is many things to many different people It matters as much in service as in goods

We all recognize it when we

experience it but how do we put it into words?

Quality is a sum of:

- Knowing the customer's needs;
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Designing to meet them; Faultless construction; Reliable bought-in components and sub-assemblies; Certified performance and safety;
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Clear instruction manuals; Suitable packaging; Punctual delivery; Efficient back-up service; Feed-back of field experience.

Quality is:

difficult to define; it's an abstract term; it requires continuous and dynamic adaptation of products and services to fulfill or exceed the requirements or expectations of all parties in the organization and the community as a whole.
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Definitions of Quality

"Quality is fitness for use" (Joseph Juran & Frank Gryna ); Quality means conformance to requirements (Philip Crosby);

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Quality is a function of loss. The better the quality, the lesser is the loss it causes to society (Taguchi); "Quality denotes an excellence in goods and services, especially to the degree they conform to requirements and satisfy customers (American Society for Quality (ASQ);

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"Quality is a customer determination based upon a customer's actual experience with a product or service, measured against his or her requirements -stated or unstated, conscious or merely sensed, technically operational or entirely subjective -and always representing a moving target in a competitive market (Armand Feigenbaum);

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Achieving excellence in a product/service by meeting/exceeding the requirements of the customer; "...the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs" (Robert Peach, The ISO 9000 Handbook);

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Five Ways of Looking at Quality Definitions

1. Customer - based

"Quality consists of the capacity to satisfy wants. (C. D. Edwards, "The Meaning of

Quality", in Quality Progress Oct.1968); "Quality is fitness for use." (J.M. Juran, ed. Quality Control Handbook 1988).

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2. Manufacturing - based

"Quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to a design or specification" (H.L.
Gilmore: Product Conformance Cost. Quality progress June 1974);

"Quality [means] conformance to requirements."

(P.B. Crosby: Quality Is Free).

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3. Product - based

"Quality refers to the amount of the unpriced attributes contained in each unit of the priced attribute." (K. B. Leifler:
Ambiguous Chamges in Product Quality, American Economic Review Dec.1982).

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4. Value - based

Quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost." (R. A.

Broh: Managing Quality for Higher Profits, 1982).

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5. Transcendent

"Quality is neither mind nor matter, but a third entity independent of the two, even though Quality cannot be defined, you know what it is." (R. M. Pirsig: Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

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W.A. Shewhart - 1931

"the difficulty in defining quality is to translate future needs of the users into measurable characteristics, so that the product can be designed and turned out to give satisfaction at a price that the user will pay".

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Quality in different areas of society

Airlines - On-time, comfortable, low-cost service Health Care - Correct diagnosis, minimum wait time, lower cost, security Food Services - Good product, fast delivery, good environment Postal Services - fast delivery, correct delivery, cost containment

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Academia - Proper preparation for future, on-time knowledge delivery Consumer - Products properly made, defect-free, cost effective Insurance Pay off on time, reasonable cost Automotive - Defect-free Communications - Clearer, faster, cheaper service

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Why is Quality Important

Long term satisfaction with services and products can be achieved and maintained only by continuous improvement of quality and by continuously meeting customers demands ;

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Why is Quality Important

The measure of the association between price and quality gives important information about price quality relationship which has a great value for designing new profitable products;

Competitive value for money comes from competitive quality at a competitive price;
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Why is Quality Important

A reputation for competitive quality is a firm's greatest asset; A national reputation for quality is the best of all; Quality is a " gold mine ", but it is not a panacea and the way towards a profitable company is very hard.
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How can Quality be Achieved?

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Effective and continuing market research the first key; Knowing and understanding the customer's quality needs; Material and component suppliers committed to achieve quality;

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How can Quality be Achieved?

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Fully taking into account the manufacturing process and service maintenance needs;

The design is continually reviewed in the light of experience.

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