Quality and Quality Control
Quality
refers to how good something is compared to other similar things.
In other words, its degree of excellence. When used to describe people, it
refers to a distinctive characteristic or attribute that they possess. In this
sense, we can also use cthe term for things. If I think that Mary’s best
attribute is her honesty, I can say “Mary’s best quality is her honesty.”
When
we refer to ‘people of quality’ we usually mean people of high social standing.
However, the term, with this meaning, is less common today than in the past.
In
business, especially manufacturing, it is a measure of excellence. In this
context, it can also refer to a state of being defect-free.
The
ISO standard defines quality as:
“The
totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its
ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”
Quality is a relative (comparative) concept. It is related to
certain predetermined characteristics such as shape, dimensions, composition,
finish, colour, weight, etc. In simple words, quality is the performance of the
product as per the commitment made by the producer to the consumer. J. M. Juran
(1970) who is considered the father of quality research has defined quality
as “the performance of the product as per the commitment made by the producer
to the consumer.”
For example, a watch should show accurate time or a ball
point pen should write legibly on a piece of paper.
Quality in business
In
business, manufacturing, and engineering, the term has a pragmatic
interpretation as the superiority or non-inferiority of something. It also
refers to a product as ‘fit for purpose,’ while at the same time satisfying
consumer expectations.
Customer’s and producer’s interpretation
“Consumers / Customers may
focus on the specification quality of a product / service, or how it compares
to competitors in the marketplace.”
“Producers might
measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product / service was
produced correctly. Support personnel may measure quality in the degree that a
product is reliable, maintainable, or sustainable.”
Definitions of Quality
Any
business that can't manage the quality of its processes and products tends to
fall apart. Quality is critical to sales, cost control, productivity, risk
management and compliance.
1. Fit for Purpose
Perhaps
the most useful business definition of quality is "fit for purpose".
This definition evolved in quality management circles. It's useful because it's
applicable to any process, service or product. However, it can be difficult to
measure.
If
the purpose of an aircraft is to be fast, efficient, comfortable and safe —
then that's the definition of a quality aircraft.
Fit
for purpose is a practical and flexible definition that's the cornerstone of
most quality management initiatives.
2. Conformance to Requirements
Quality
is often measured in terms of conformance to requirements. For example,
business users define requirements for a sales system. The sales system is
developed and its quality is measured against the requirements.
This
definition is ideal for quality assurance teams that need to validate
processes, systems, services and product quality. Working from requirements,
they can easily validate conformance and identify non-conformance.
The
problem with this definition is that requirements may offer a biased and
subjective view of quality. In many cases, requirements represent little more
than the ideas of business stakeholders. There's often no objective validation
that these ideas will yield a quality result.
3. Quality Is Cost
Traditionally,
product quality was thought of in terms of material costs. A watch that's made
of gold is higher quality than a watch made of plastic. High quality sheets
have a thread count of 180 or higher. High quality hand moisturizer has a high
Shea butter content.
This
type of quality definition works well for some simple products. However, it's
inapplicable to technology, art and culture. The history of technology is
filled with
cheaper
products that have higher quality.
4.
Quality is Price
Quality
is an essential part of economic models. Economists have developed various
definitions of quality.
Economists
tend to judge quality by the price consumers are willing to pay.
If
you're an economist and you need to measure quality across an entire economy —
you need a quality definition that's easy to measure. According to economists, if
something is expensive, it's high quality.
5. Quality is a Standard
The
manufacturing industry was the first to take a hard, scientific look at
quality. Manufacturers are concerned both with the quality of products and the
quality of the manufacturing process itself.
If
you're manufacturing one million cars a month you can't afford to produce
sub-standard products that will be returned by your customers. You can't afford
product liability issues that result from sub-standard product. You also can't
afford inefficient processes.
Manufacturers use standards and continual process improvement methodologies to
improve both processes and product quality. They view quality in terms of
measurements and statistics.
6. Quality is Value for
Performance
Marketing
teams look for practical definitions of quality that explain why consumers and
businesses buy.
One
of the best ways to model purchasing behaviour is with the following definition
of quality.
According
to estimates, McDonald's sells 550 million Big Macs each year in the US alone.
Obviously, customers see value in the Big Mac. It's not always practical to
measure quality by the yardstick of a 3-star restaurant.
According
to this definition a Rs.10 disposable tooth brush may be higher quality than a Rs.3000
golden tooth brush because it offers more value.
7. Quality is An Experience
As
economies have shifted from a product to a service focus marketer have sought
definitions of quality that explain why customers purchase services.
You
don't go to a fine restaurant for the quality of food (product) alone. You go
for the end-to-end experience from calling to make the reservation to paying
the check and walking out the door. Customers judge fine dining by aesthetics,
service, atmosphere, decor, taste, smell, etc.
Experiences
are measured by establishing relationships with customers to elicit dialog and
feedback. Experience quality can also be measured by bottom line metrics such
as revenue, return visits and lifetime customer value.
Quality Control
A system of maintaining
standards in manufactured products by testing a sample of the output against
the specification.
“Quality
control is a system of inspection, analysis and action applied to a
manufacturing process so that, by inspecting a small portion of the product
currently produced, an analysis of its quality can be made to determine what
action is required on the operation in order to achieve and maintain the
desired level of quality.” - Joseph
Manueb.
“Quality control is the mechanism by which products are made
to measure up to the specifications determined from the customer’s demands and
transform into sales, engineering and manufacturing requirements. It is
concerned with making things right rather than discovering and rejecting those
made wrong. Quality control is a technique by means of which products of
uniform acceptable quality are manufactured.”
“Quality control may be defined as that
industrial management technique or group of techniques by means of which products
of uniform acceptable quality are manufactured. It is indeed the mechanism by
which products are made to measure up to specifications determined from
customer’s demand and transformed into sales, engineering and manufacturing
requirements. It is concerned with making things right rather than the
discovering and rejecting those made wrong”. - Alford and Beatty
“Quality control means the recognition
and removal of identifiable causes and defects, and variables from the set
standards”. - J.A. Shubin.
“Quality control is used to connote all
those activities which are directed for defining, controlling and maintaining
quality”. - K.G. Lockyer.
“Quality control is systematic control by
management of the variables in the manufacturing process that affect goodness of
the end-product.” - H.N. Broom.
“Quality control is systematic control of
these variables in the manufacturing process which affect the excellence of the
end product. These variables result from the application of materials, men,
machines and manufacturing condition. The production system possesses those
inputs to produce desirable outputs.
Only when these variables in the inputs
are regulated to the extent that they do not deviate unnecessarily from the
excellence of the manufacturing process as reflected in the quality of the
finished product, can the control of quality be said to exist.” - Bethel, At water and Stackman
“Quality control includes techniques and
systems for the achievement of the required quality in the articles produced
and for the elimination of sub-standard goods.” - Tome, Simen and HcGill.
“Quality control is a technique of
scientific management which has the object of improving industrial efficiency
by concentrating on better standards of quality and on controls to ensure that
these standards are always maintained. It is not intended to show what is wrong
with current technology, but rather to establish what can be achieved with
existing methods when they are operated correctly.” - D.J. Desmond.
From the above-mentioned definitions, it
is clear that quality control is concerned with controlling the negative
variables which affect the ultimate quality of a product and in a broader sense
it is concerned with the performance of those activities leading to fulfilment
the company’s objectives.
Some of the important advantages to quality
control are as follows:
1. The brand products build up goodwill
or image which ultimately increases sales.
2. It helps the manufacturers /
entrepreneurs in fixing responsibility of workers in the production process.
3. Quality control also helps in
minimizing the costs by increasing efficiency, standardization, working
conditions, etc.
4. It also enables the entrepreneur to
know the cost of his / her product quite in advance which helps him in
determining competitive prices of his product.
5. The entrepreneur can confirm whether
the product manufactured by him / her is in accordance with the standard set by
the Government. It further facilitates the entrepreneur to take necessary
actions to comply with the standard set.
Methods
or Tools of Quality Control:
1. Inspection:
Inspection, in fact, is the common method
used for quality control purposes not only in production but also in services.
2. Statistical Quality Control:
It is an advanced method or technique
used to control the quality of a product. This method is based on statistical
techniques to determine and control the quality. Sampling, probability, and
other statistical inferences are used in this method for controlling the
quality of a product. It is widely used in process control in continuous
process industries and in industries producing goods on a mass scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment