Core Concepts Of Quality And Associated Academic Theory

Today’s consumers are constantly trying to judge the quality of products. But what is quality? How and by whom is quality determined? Some would say the designer creates specifications, which in turn dictate the quality of a product. That quality is also based on the acceptable value of a part within a whole product.

This week’s assignment is about evaluating the quality issues of three organizations. The three sectors I chose to evaluate are manufacturing, service and government. I will then discuss the importance of quality to each organization, the relationship of quality to customers, the leadership commitment to quality and the alignment of quality to the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Wicks and Roethlein (2009) define quality as the “maximum customer satisfaction and customer retention that leads to customer loyalty to the health care organisation”. This means that when customers are happy with the care they receive they will be confident in the service that the health care organisation is given.

(Kimes 2001) in her study “how product quality drives profitability” argues that there is a connection between quality management and financial success. She argues the use of quality assurance, benchmarking, assessing the cost of error, continuous improvement, and total quality management among other

Dr. W. Edward Deming is best known for reminding management that most problems are systemic and that it is management's responsibility to improve the systems so that workers (management and non-management) can do their jobs more effectively. Deming argued that higher quality leads to higher productivity, which, in turn, leads to long-term competitive strength. The theory is that improvements in quality lead to lower costs and higher productivity because they result in less rework, fewer mistakes, fewer delays, and better use of time and materials. With better quality and lower prices, a firm can achieve a greater market share and thus stay in business, providing more and more jobs.

Kaoru Ishikawa is known as “the ‘Father of Quality Circles’ and as a founder of the Japanese quality movement”. (Beckford, John. Quality: A Critical Introduction) Ishikawa was also a pioneer in Total Quality Management. He believed in working for the customer before, during, and after product and/or services were delivered. Ishikawa was a Chemist, held a doctorate in Engineering, and was Professor at Tokyo University

Quality is defined as conformance to the requirement, not goodness: The first absolute explains that management must strive to ensure that during the quality improvement process everyone is getting things done right the first time. Crosby stated that in other to do this management must state clearly what are the individual roles of the employee, management must also supply the employees with the resources needed to do their task and lastly management must give continuous support and encouragement to the employees during the improvement process. When quality is defined as conformance to requirement it helps to reduce hassle and improve quality at the same time. Crosby (1995).

The history of quality management can be traced back to the Japanese during the economy-rebuilding period of the 1950’s. They emphasized on prevention rather than inspection, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement and leadership training. These principles formed the Total Quality Management (TQM) system. Concisely TQM emphasized on “Quality of Management” rather than “Management of Quality” The EFQM model was an improvement

Quality control is a critical concept in every industry and profession. The survival of your job and of your company depends on your ability to produce a quality product or service. For most people, quality is associated with the idea of a product or service that’s well done, looks good, and does its job well. Quality product is one that lasts, holds up well under use, and doesn’t require constant repair. A quality product or service should meet a high standard in many areas, such as form, features, fit and finish, reliability, and usability. As products and services evolve, consumer expectations tend to increase so that yesterday’s quality product becomes tomorrow’s junk. Quality revolves around meeting customer

Quality as one basic dimension of competitive priorities is very important for companies, although different functions such as manufacturing, marketing and engineering have different views of quality definitions, Garvin in 1987 clarified a framework of quality which includes eight dimensions, performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality (Ward, et al, 1998). Definitely, companies could choose different one or more above dimensions strive to develop quality to be competitive priority.

Deming Juran and Crosby considers measurement as very important to improve quality but they use it in different ways. For Juran and Crosby they view the cost of quality as a focus of measurement. Cost can measured in dollars and for both Crosby and Juran they consider that money is the language of management. Success of the efforts of the quality will be ultimately measured by meeting customer requirements. Juran normally considers the cost of all the poor quality as a important factor because it shows how much they are losing. He also knows they are other factors which are important to measure such as how the organization compares with the competition and how customers perceive

Quality is never an accident it is always the results of high intention, sincere efforts, intelligent directions and skillful execution, it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.

For Andrei Octavian PARASCHIVESCU and Florin Mihai CAPRIOARA, organizations that desire to implement a strategic quality management approach should consider both the strategic dimension of quality and the management strategy (2014, p 19). In fact, both writers stipulate ”Quality Management” aims to advance quality to meet patron’s requirements by controlling processes (Paraschivescu & Caprioara, 2014, p 21). Likewise, their ideas confirm that the production approach demands a strict input from workers. In doing so, quality improvement teams can measure and spot

Quality of conformance includes technology, manpower and management while availability focuses on reliability, maintainability and logistics support. Juran emphasized that good service quality composed of promptness, competence and integrity. Like Deming, Juran advocated a never-ending spiral of activities that includes market research, product development, design, production process control and inspection and testing, followed by customer feedback. In his view, senior management may play an active and enthusiastic leadership role in the quality management process.

Even though Deming, Juran, and Crosby all have similarities between their key principles in quality management there are several aspects that are different to the approaches. They all recognize the importance of measurement to improve quality; however, the level of importance each emphasizes is different. Crosby and Juran view the cost of quality as the focus of measurement whereas Deming does not use the cost of quality as a focus (Suarez, 1992, p.18). To Deming, meeting the customers’ needs and expectations about a product or service is of higher importance to quality. He also considers unknown costs such as the impact of lost customers to be more significant than visible costs (Suarez, 1992, p.18).