PRODUCT QUALITY
What is quality?
If a product fulfills 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 fulfill 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, and shelf life and so on.
"Time was when a man could order a pair of shoes directly from the cobbler. By measuring the foot himself and personally handling all aspects of manufacturing, the cobbler could assure the customer would be satisfied," lamented Dr. Yoji Akao, one of the founders of QFD, in his private lectures.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was developed to bring this personal interface to modern manufacturing and business. In today's industrial society, where the growing distance between producers and users is a concern, QFD links the needs of the customer (end user) with design, development, engineering, manufacturing, and service functions.
QFD is: 1. Understanding Customer Requirements 2. Quality Systems Thinking + Psychology + Knowledge/Epistemology 3. Maximizing Positive Quality That Adds Value 4. Comprehensive Quality System for Customer Satisfaction 5. Strategy to Stay Ahead of The Game
As a quality system that implements elements of Systems Thinking with elements of