What Is Quality Management
What Is Quality Management
Definitions of Quality - Quality is “Fitness for Purpose”
- Quality is “Doing it right the first time and every time”
- Quality is “The Degree to which the design specifications for a product or service are appropriate to its function and use, and the degree to which a product or service conforms to its design specifications”.
A frequently used definition of quality is “Delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs and expectations”. These may include performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability, maintainability, cost effectiveness and price. It is, therefore, imperative that the organization knows what these needs and expectations are. In addition, having identified them, the organization must understand them, and measure its own ability to meet them. Quality starts with market research – to establish the true requirements for the product or service and the true needs of the customers. However, for an organization to be really effective, quality must span all functions, all people, all departments and all activities and be a common language for improvement. The cooperation of everyone at every interface is necessary to achieve a total quality organization, in the same way that the Japanese achieve this with company wide quality control. Quality is important for the continuous growth and survival of the nations, industries, organizations, and individuals.
Importance of Understanding Customers and Suppliers in an Organization
Customers and Suppliers exist in each department, each office, each home, etc. These are “the quality chains”, and they can be broken at any point by one person or one piece of equipment not meeting the requirements of the customer whether he is internal or external. Failure to meet the requirements in any part of a quality chain has a way of multiplying, and failure in one part of the system creates problems elsewhere, leading to yet more failure and
Definitions of Quality - Quality is “Fitness for Purpose”
- Quality is “Doing it right the first time and every time”
- Quality is “The Degree to which the design specifications for a product or service are appropriate to its function and use, and the degree to which a product or service conforms to its design specifications”.
A frequently used definition of quality is “Delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs and expectations”. These may include performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability, maintainability, cost effectiveness and price. It is, therefore, imperative that the organization knows what these needs and expectations are. In addition, having identified them, the organization must understand them, and measure its own ability to meet them. Quality starts with market research – to establish the true requirements for the product or service and the true needs of the customers. However, for an organization to be really effective, quality must span all functions, all people, all departments and all activities and be a common language for improvement. The cooperation of everyone at every interface is necessary to achieve a total quality organization, in the same way that the Japanese achieve this with company wide quality control. Quality is important for the continuous growth and survival of the nations, industries, organizations, and individuals.
Importance of Understanding Customers and Suppliers in an Organization
Customers and Suppliers exist in each department, each office, each home, etc. These are “the quality chains”, and they can be broken at any point by one person or one piece of equipment not meeting the requirements of the customer whether he is internal or external. Failure to meet the requirements in any part of a quality chain has a way of multiplying, and failure in one part of the system creates problems elsewhere, leading to yet more failure and