A lot of people have a
misconception that quality is equal to inspection of finish goods from
manufacturing process to ensure that the final product fulfill customer’s
requirements or specifications. This is a
very narrow minded thinking as inspection only forms a small slice of quality management and engineering. I still find
that many quality professional and top management in
manufacturing does not really have very
good understanding in the following areas :
Definition of quality,
Why is quality important
Who owns quality
How do we measure quality?
How is quality achieve?
Different aspect of quality
What are the various aspect
of quality and different types of quality engineers
All
the above items might sound very fundamental, unfortunately there are many
misconceptions on the above basic quality topics in manufacturing industries. Therefore I would
like to start this blog by sharing the above basics topic for my readers to understand quality better and share my
perspective as a quality engineering professional for nearly 3 decades
Definition
of quality
According to American Society of Quality (a well known global leader in
quality) quality of the a product is defined as fitness for use, conformance to
requirements, and the pursuit of excellence. There are 2 aspects of quality product
- Product must fit for use for its intended purpose and has ability to satisfy stated or implied customer needs
- A product free of deficiencies and able to function without problem for its intended purpose
This means if I were to buy a refrigerator, it should have a frozen compartment for my
frozen foods and chiller to preserve my food item in low temperature and
able to function according to the feature given by manufacturer once (fitness
of use for its intended purpose). I should be able to install the refrigerator
without any problem (free from deficiencies) easily. After installation the refrigerator should
work properly.
Consumer and producer would look at quality differently. As a producer, if I
produce or supply product which comply to customer requirement, fit for
use and free from defect then the product is of good quality.
For a consumer this would be considered as expected feature such as the
refrigerator example above where we will expect the refrigerator to function
well after set up and plug in electricity and quality could mean “extra”
feature at reasonable cost. Quality
could also mean long lasting from a consumer's point of view in more traditional
and might not be applicable anymore in today's “throw way” society where gadget
such as smart phone get upgraded almost every 6 months. With such frequent upgrade not many consumer will care
if the gadget could last for years.
I would personally defined a product as good quality with the following
features
- Well design according to consumer needs
- Made from good quality material (high grade material),
- Originated from well control process input such as trained operator, manufacturing methods, well maintained equipment and environment which able to reduce variations process input
- Minimal handling of the product such as no excessive testing or inspection which minimize handling defects
- Appropriate check and balance process (inspection and/or test process) which reflect the performance capability of the product
- Do it right the first time with no rework.
- Able to function well beyond its warranty period
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If product full fill the above seven criteria, not only will we have a good quality product , we would also be able to meet the cost objective of both producer and consumer as well.
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| Figure 1 : Criteria for good quality product |
Why is
quality important
Quality is important to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty. From a supplier perspective, you must ensure customer willing to spend money to buy your product and NOT your competitor’s
product. Customer is the one that
determine the quality value of your product base on how much the product full
fill their requirements and beyond which sometimes include price target. Some customer are even willing to pay for
reputable brand which synonymous to quality
in their perception. Therefore at
the minimum, producer must have the
ability to market a product which is perceive as good
quality in order to sell the product. It
would defeat the purpose of business entity
if the product is not able to sell
in consumer market as there is no profit and revenue generated.
Consumer has the power to determine how successful a product would be
and how much profit a company would make. In short we would like to have a
quality product according to consumer perception of “quality “in a highly
competitive market place as they are the one choose to buy your product.
