What is quality?

If a product fulfils the customer’s expectations, the customer will be pleased and

consider that the product is of acceptable or even high quality. If his or her expectations

are not fulfilled, the customer will consider that the product is of low quality.

This means that the quality of a product may be defined as “its ability to fulfil the

customer’s needs and expectations”.

Quality needs to be defined firstly in terms of parameters or characteristics, which vary

from product to product. For example, for a mechanical or electronic product these

are performance, reliability, safety and appearance. For pharmaceutical products,

parameters such as physical and chemical characteristics, medicinal effect, toxicity,

taste and shelf life may be important. For a food product they will include taste,

nutritional properties, texture, shelf life and so on.

Fixing product specifications

A specification is the minimum requirement according to which a producer or service

provider makes and delivers the product and service to the customer. In setting

specification limits, the following should be considered:

The user’s and/or customer’s needs

Requirements relating to product safety and health hazards provided for in the

statutory and regulatory requirements

Requirements provided for in national and/or international standards

The competitor’s product specifications, in order to gain marketing advantages

In designing the product, the capacity of processes and machines should be kept in

mind. It is also necessary to maintain a balance between cost and value realization.

The clearer the specification, the better the possibility of creating and delivering

quality products.

Preparing product design

The specifications and drawings produced by the designer should show the quality

standard demanded by the customer or marketplace in clear and precise terms. Every

dimension should have realistic tolerances and other performance requirements

PRODUCT QUALITY
should have precise limits of acceptability so that the production team can manufacture

the product strictly according to specification and drawings.

To achieve the above, those responsible for design, production and quality should be

consulted from the sales negotiation stage onwards. The overall design of any product

is made up of many individual characteristics. For example these may be:

Dimensions, such as length, diameter, thickness or area;

Physical properties, such as weight, volume or strength;
Electrical properties, such as resistance, voltage or current;
Appearance, such as finish, colour or texture;
Functional qualities, such as output or kilometre per litre;
Effects on service, such as taste, feel or noise level.

Manufacturing drawings and specifications are prepared by the designers and these

should indicate to the production team precisely what quality is required and what

raw materials should be used.

Preparation for manufacture

After the design, including the manufacturing drawings, has been reviewed and

finalized, it is time to plan for manufacture. This will include the following steps:

(a) Deciding on the method of manufacture.

Methods must be devised that permit

the operators and processes to make the product in the quickest, easiest and most foolproof

way, including preparation of manufacturing instructions, setting up procedures,

listing various operations and so on;

(b) Providing the necessary machines, plant, tooling and other equipment
. Everything

that is required for manufacture must be selected, taking care that all the elements

are capable of achieving the standard of quality demanded;

(c) Obtaining satisfactory raw materials.

No one can make a good product from

unsatisfactory raw materials, so every material must have a precise written buying

specification so that the purchasing department can buy exactly what is required. Often

purchasers are expected to buy from suppliers who have been assessed and approved

by them and when supplies arrive the goods should be checked before acceptance into

stores. Quality requirements and manufacturing processes should be discussed with the

suppliers, as well as the inspection activities to be carried out by the purchaser on the

goods on arrival;

(d) Obtaining and training suitable operators

. Operators who are willing and able to

do the work in a satisfactory manner must be chosen and given whatever training

they need;

(e) Planning inspection and shop floor quality control.

Plans for inspection activities

should be prepared, proper workplaces provided for inspection staff, written inspection

2 Product quality: a guide for small and medium-sized enterprises

procedures prepared, inspection equipment provided, checking and calibration of

inspection equipment planned for, inspection personnel selected and trained and prepilot

and pilot runs carried out. One should never attempt to solve a quality problem

by carrying out more inspections.

Manufacture
Once the design and planning for manufacture have been completed, the manufacturing

can begin. If the planning has been well done, there should not be too many

problems. During manufacture the following are the most common factors that can

affect quality:

(a) Set-up.

Some processes, such as punching, cutting, printing and labelling, are

so consistent that, if the initial set-up is correct, the whole lot will conform to the

specifications. However, the initial set-up has to be checked by carrying out first-piece

inspection;

(b) Machines and tools.

From time to time changes can occur in machine or tool

settings, which can then lead to defects. Processes of this type include machining,

resistance welding and filling. Here it is necessary to carry out periodic checks by patrol

inspection;

(c) Operator.

There are some processes where the result depends on the skill and

attention of the operator, such as welding, hand soldering and painting processes. For

such processes it is necessary at the manufacture planning stage for the operator’s

working methods to be decided upon;

(d) Materials and components.

It is important to ensure the quality of raw materials

and components by undertaking regular checks on the suppliers’ processes and also

where necessary by carrying out incoming inspection.

Correction of quality deficiencies

In spite of all the efforts made, the required quality will sometimes not be attained
and one may be faced with a pile of scrap and rework. This means that something

has gone wrong during the quality planning and maybe also during the manufacturing

process. The reason for the trouble must be located and permanently corrected so

that it cannot happen again. The following are obvious possibilities:

The shop-floor operators had no clear idea what standard of quality was required;
The method was such that it was very difficult to get the job right, but very easy

to get it wrong;

The machine and equipment were incapable of achieving the tolerances required;
The incoming materials and components were unsatisfactory;
The operators were untrained and not up to the job;
Shop-floor quality control was either not properly planned or not properly executed,

or both.

Product quality 3

Coordination
It is obvious from the above steps that everybody in the company, that is, the salesmen,

designers, purchasing, stores and methods staff, plant engineers, jigs and tool

personnel, production planning and production staff, operators, inspection and testing

staff, packaging, dispatch and so on, are responsible for product quality. Indeed,

quality is everybody’s business. Unfortunately, if care is not taken, it ends up being

nobody’s business. It is therefore important to ensure that everyone is quality-conscious

and that they all work together on matters related to quality

Definitions
The common element of the business definitions is that the quality of a product or service refers
to the perception of the degree to which the product or service meets the customer's expectations.
Quality has no specific meaning unless related to a specific function and/or object. Quality is a
perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute.

The business meanings of quality have developed over time. Various interpretations are given
below:
 1. ISO 9000: "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements."[1] The
standard defines requirement as need or expectation.
2. Six Sigma: "Number of defects per million opportunities."[2]
3. Subir Chowdhury: "Quality combines people power and process power."[3]
4. Philip B. Crosby: "Conformance to requirements."[4][5] The requirements may not fully
represent customer expectations; Crosby treats this as a separate problem.
5. Joseph M. Juran: "Fitness for use."[5] Fitness is defined by the customer.
6. Noriaki Kano and others, present a two-dimensional model of quality: "must-be quality"
and "attractive quality."[6] The former is near to "fitness for use" and the latter is what the
customer would love, but has not yet thought about. Supporters characterize this model
more succinctly as: "Products and services that meet or exceed customers' expectations."
7. Robert Pirsig: "The result of care."[7]
8. Genichi Taguchi, with two definitions:

a. "Uniformity around a target value."[8] The idea is to lower the standard deviation in
outcomes, and to keep the range of outcomes to a certain number of standard deviations,
with rare exceptions.
b. "The loss a product imposes on society after it is shipped."[9] This definition of quality
is based on a more comprehensive view of the production system.

9. American Society for Quality: "A subjective term for which each person has his or her
own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings:

a. The characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or
implied needs;
b. A product or service free of deficiencies."[5]

10. Peter Drucker: "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what
the customer gets out and is willing to pay for."[10]
11. W. Edwards Deming: concentrating on "the efficient production of the quality that the
market expects,"[11] and he linked quality and management: "Costs go down and
productivity goes up as improvement of quality is accomplished by better management of
design, engineering, testing and by improvement of processes."[12]
12. Gerald M. Weinberg: "Value to some person".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_(business)
The role of Quality in business

The current Quality drive has brought many areas of expertise together. We see, for example,
operations research, project management, economics, statistics, systems analysis, various
branches of engineering, marketing, general and strategic management, financial management,
and many others coming together to achieve the best output for the organisation. The aim of the
drive to improve and sustain Quality is primarily to improve business performance (through
reducing poor quality and related costs) and to develop a conducive corporate culture to do this.

Measuring Quality and performance

To be able to have a tangible effect on improving business performance, Quality strategy must
determine what is being done and then suggest ways of bettering it. This involves different
methods of measuring performance. Some of these methods are:

 measurement against internal standards

 measurement against customer needs
 business performance measurements in financial terms
 benchmarking internally and externally to set best standards
 Quality measurements that are holistic and seek determining of total performance.

We will now briefly consider each of these methods and outline what they imply.

 Internal standards: The elements that these would typically look at include the direct cost of
maintaining quality:
o warranty
o cost of failure to perform to specifications
o costs of setting up and maintaining measures to prevent failure
o inspection costs
o on time delivery
o success of first performance
o value added
o manpower costs, including cost of not having suitable personnel
o inventory levels and turnover
o profit from performance.
 Customer needs: The most often used methods of measuring customer satisfaction are to
measure complaints and claims. There is a fundamental problem with this system of
measurement because it is widely reported that only 4% of dissatisfied customers actually take
the trouble to complain (see for example Bergman and Klefsjo 1994, p. 287). However, each
dissatisfied customer will speak to 11 others about his experience, while a satisfied customer
speaks to only three (this in itself is a measure of how we have come to expect Quality in our
 daily dealings). The implication of all this is to actually carry out customer focused studies to get
a true picture of customer sentiment.
 Business performance: The basics of measuring business performance are to determine
corporate against set goals. In measuring performance against goals, it is important to take into
account factors like changes in the market, the business performing its functions as designed,
the response to changing market needs, the time taken to respond to such changes, and the
outcomes, measured both in financial and market share terms. Key to studying business
performance is to include the identification and study of any failures to improve future
performance. The measuring function should include input from the customers, employees,
business partners (suppliers, sub-contractors), as well as financial and non-financial returns.
 Benchmarking: The aim of benchmarking should be to improve performance and enhance
competitive advantage through a process of identifying ways to improve processes. This can
lead to identifying new, or better use of, technology or management techniques. The most
important areas of benchmarking are to identify the right areas to benchmark, the right
organisations/areas, define the questions to which answers are sought, and define ways of
recording, analysing and implementing the information obtained. For any benchmarking effort
to be successful, the commitment of everyone from senior management to the front line
workers to implement the lessons learnt and improve the processes is critical. The essential
outcome from benchmarking will often be some desired change to the existing situation. This
change can attract resistance from within the organisation. Good communication of the
intentions, processes and benefits will help in adoption of the change.
 Quality measurements: This is probably the most difficult to measure because it is meant to be
a measure of all activities carried out by the organisation, including the impact on the
community within which the organisation performs. Various Quality philosophies have their own
systems of measurement ranging from the readily quantifiable systems of ISO 9000 to more
holistic and probing systems like TQM, Six Sigma and the Malcolm Baldridge award. The
differences emerge because of the roots of Quality systems, which are traced to engineering
processes. The further the philosophy has moved to conceptual recognition of Quality, as
discussed in the first half of this chapter, the more probing are the measurements. Broadly, the
measurements reflect the Quality system that is implemented, the extent and formality of the
system in the organisation, and the purpose to which the outcome of the measurement will be
put.

The ISO 9000 series

This is a series of standards that addresses organisational structures, management procedures and
work processes such that the customer is assured that certain standards of quality are being met
through documentation of policies and procedures. Nowhere does the standard indicate achieving
a quality higher than necessary.

The following table, taken from the ISO website, explains the numbering and context of each of
the component standards in the ISO 9000 family.

Table 2.1: The ISO series

Standards and guidelines Purpose

ISO 9000:2000, Quality management Establishes a starting point for understanding the
systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary standards and defines the fundamental terms and
definitions used in the ISO 9000 family which you
need to avoid misunderstandings in their use.
ISO 9001:2000, Quality management This is the requirement standard you use to assess your
systems - Requirements ability to meet customer and applicable regulatory
requirements and thereby address customer
satisfaction.

It is now the only standard in the ISO 9000 family

against which third-party certification can be carried.
ISO 9004:2000, Quality management This guideline standard provides guidance for
systems - Guidelines for performance continual improvement of your quality management
improvements system to benefit all parties through sustained customer
satisfaction.
ISO 19011, Guidelines on Quality and/or Provides you with guidelines for verifying the system's
Environmental Management Systems ability to achieve defined quality objectives. You can
Auditing (currently under development) use this standard internally or for auditing your
suppliers.
ISO 10005:1995, Quality management - Provides guidelines to assist in the preparation, review,
Guidelines for quality plans acceptance and revision of quality plans.
ISO 10006:1997, Quality management - Guidelines to help you ensure the quality of both the
Guidelines to quality in project project processes and the project products.
management
ISO 10007:1995, Quality management - Gives you guidelines to ensure that a complex product
Guidelines for configuration continues to function when components are changed
management individually.
ISO/DIS 10012, Quality assurance Give you guidelines on the main features of a
requirements for measuring equipment - calibration system to ensure that measurements are
Part 1: Metrological confirmation made with the intended accuracy.
system for measuring equipment
ISO 10012-2:1997, Quality assurance Provides supplementary guidance on the application of
for measuring equipment - Part 2: statistical process control when this is appropriate for
Guidelines for control of measurement of achieving the objectives of Part 1.
processes
ISO 10013:1995, Guidelines for Provides guidelines for the development, and
developing quality manuals maintenance of quality manuals, tailored to your
specific needs.
ISO/TR 10014:1998, Guidelines for Provides guidance on how to achieve economic
managing the economics of quality benefits from the application of quality management.

Table 2.1 (cont'd)

ISO 10015:1999, Quality management - Provides guidance on the development,

Guidelines for training implementation, maintenance and improvement of
 strategies and systems for training that affects the
quality of products.
ISO/TS 16949:1999, Quality systems - Sector specific guidance to the application of ISO
Automotive suppliers - Particular 9001 in the automotive industry.
requirements for the application of ISO
9001:1994

Source : http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/iso9000-14000/iso9000/selection_use/iso9000family.html

The ISO 9000 is based upon eight principles of management, which are expected to guide
organisations towards improved performance. It is important to note that the first principle is
customer focus. In the other principles, we see a focus on processes and people. Reading 2.1
details these principles.

Business
A business (also known as company, enterprise, or firm) is a legally recognized organization designed to
provide goods, services, or both to consumers or tertiary business in exchange for money.[1] Businesses
are predominant in capitalist economies, in which most businesses are privately owned and typically
formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners. The owners and operators of private,
for-profit businesses have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return
in exchange for work and acceptance of risk. Businesses can also be formed not-for-profit or be state-
owned.