Quality Basics

 

INTRODUCTION

What is Quality?

Quality is a term that can have various meanings depending on the context. In general, quality refers to the characteristics or attributes of something that make it good or desirable. It often involves a combination of factors such as excellence, fitness for purpose, consistency, and meeting or exceeding expectations.

To me, quality means delivering value that aligns with expectations or specifications. It involves a commitment to excellence, continuous improvement, and meeting or surpassing the standards set for a particular product, service, or process.

Quality is important for several reasons:

Customer satisfaction: Providing high-quality products or services leads to customer satisfaction. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations helps build trust and loyalty.

Competitive advantage: High-quality offerings can give a business a competitive edge in the market. Customers are often willing to pay a premium for products or services that are perceived as high quality.

Efficiency and effectiveness: Quality processes lead to efficiency and effectiveness in operations. When things are done right the first time, it reduces the need for rework and enhances productivity.

Brand reputation: Quality is closely tied to a brand's reputation. Consistently delivering quality builds a positive brand image, while poor quality can damage a brand's reputation.

Risk reduction: Quality management helps identify and mitigate risks. By adhering to quality standards and best practices, organizations can minimize the likelihood of errors, defects, and other issues.

We can see quality from two aspects. 

The first aspect is the World of facts, figures, data, numbers, and specifications. Having known these numbers of a product or service, we can clearly compare it with one another. From now on we will call it objective quality.

The other aspect of quality is subjective. It represents the latent or implied needs of the customer that means different and subjective requirements. These expectations are not specified, everyone weights them differently.

Example 1

The specification of a iron shaft prescribes 150 + / - 0.5 mm. The length of the inspected part is 150.8 mm, so the part is longer, than the allowed maximum length. This is a measurable and determinable discrepancy.

Example 2

Let’s compare two different cars from different manufacturers. The basis of the comparison will be a commonly used KPI: the number of failures at the end-user (field failures). The KPI is calculated in parts per million (ppm).

The end-user failure KPI of Model A is 300 ppm, while the same KPI of Model B is 600 ppm. This means, that the quality level - from functionality point of view – of Model B is worse, since twice as much failures are registered compared to Model A.

To compare two products objectively, it is essential to have the same attributes. As shown in the example, both products are cars, and both can have functional failures (e.g. the product does not operate or breaks down).

Subjective quality is not measurable, as it is not specified, and represents the latent needs of the customer, the "feeling of quality" and all the intangible characteristics. Subjective attributes of a product are not measurable, still statistics can be created (e.g. the furniture producer makes a survey about the comfort of its latest sofa model).

History has proven, that the most successful and best-selling products were not designed and made only by considering technical characteristics and manufacturability, but aesthetics, feeling, ergonomics, and all other subjective attributes always did matter.