Blogs Quality can be understood as characteristic

Let's do a simple experiment: let's pick up a newspaper or magazine and observe in which contexts the word quality control is mentioned. We will find that it is used in the most different fields, with completely different meanings and very different purposes. If we try to ask ten different people what "quality" means to them, the same thing will happen. Again, we are likely to get ten completely different definitions.

Pirsig believes that it is not easy to define quality objectively, but it is easy to find the lack of quality. In fact, when there is a lack of quality, we will immediately notice it.

Quality can be understood as characteristic (conforming to technical specifications) or value (applicability), which is a relative concept, so it can be defined in many ways, precisely because it consists of highly objective parts (which must meet the technical specifications of customers), but also absolutely subjective parts (which must meet the expectations and wishes of customers).

It is a relationship between realization and expectation, because it expresses the correspondence between customers' expectations and the products / services provided: the more expectations and products / services overlap, the more they will be judged as "high-quality products / services" ".

Quality is "customer driven" because the level of performance and compliance is set by the customer, who is the only person responsible for evaluating the level of quality.

Applying the famous saying "beauty is in the eyes of onlookers", we can say that quality is in the eyes of customers.

Now let's try to consider quality from the perspective of customers and organizations to see what changes have taken place.

If we look at quality from the customer's point of view, it is:

Design, product communication feeling, reliability, etc.

Value (quality compared to the price paid for the product / service)

If we look at quality from an organizational perspective, it is:

Meet the requirements

A cost (prevention cost, inspection cost, defective product cost, warranty management cost, etc.)

Therefore, the perception of quality is multidimensional and may depend on the nature of the product / service, on the context of reference (what is considered quality in a given context can be considered inferior in different contexts, or through another person), expectations Perception (based on specific knowledge of products / services, beliefs, values, emotions, information collected through advertising, media and friends), needs during evaluation, etc.

David Garvin identified eight components of quality in 1987:

Performance (does the product complete the required work?)

Reliability (how often does the product fail?)

period

Maintainability (can maintenance be carried out easily, quickly and at low cost? How does after-sales service work?)

In terms of form (how does the product look, does it look good or outdated? Is it packaged in an attractive way?)

Function (what does the product do? Is it easy to install?)

Perceived quality (what is the reputation of the supplier company? How long do I have to wait to deliver the product to me? Are the people I call friendly? Are there any training on the use of the product? Are the instructions attached to the product clear?)

Compliance with regulations (compliance with specifications? Product safety? Can the supplier understand and explain the customer's wishes in accordance with regulations? Is there any guarantee?)

Therefore, quality is the intersection of different requirements, which can be traced back to three aspects:

Effectiveness (quality of products / services)

Efficiency (cost and time control)

Elasticity (response to change)

Within the organization? How do you identify whether an organization is working on quality?

Arguably, we can argue that there is no quality without one of the following factors:

Change your desire and ability to keep pace with progress

Ability to change quickly

ethic

motivation

Let's try to ask ourselves some simple questions:

Has there been any change in the way we worked last month? What about the past three months?

Does our organization have a spirit of cooperation?

Do we work together for a common goal?

Can we have fun at work?

Are we proud to work in our organization?

Are we all responsible for the success and failure of the organization?

If your answer to these questions is no, there may be little quality in your organization.

Definition of quality

Let's try to see how to define quality

Defining "quality" is not easy. However, over the years, many people have tried. In the most famous definition, we remember:

"It's an ethics" (Feigenbaum)

"Do the right thing for the first time" (price)

"Love for customers" (Alberto Gargano)

"The extent to which a particular product meets the needs of a particular end user" (Julan)

"Excellence of products or services"

"Applicability" (Julan)

"No difference"

"It's the customer's opinion" (Feigenbaum)

"Things related to people, behavior and culture, that is, elements that cannot be copied or authenticated"

"Products / services with something that other similar products / services do not have"

"Ensure to meet the explicit and implicit needs of customers at the lowest cost, and constantly deal with the competition"

"Products / services with the best combination of function and price"

"Always looking for the best way to do something"

"Set realistic, measurable, measurable and continuous improvement goals"

"The result depends on how well the product meets the needs of the customer for whom it was created."

"Meet the requirements" (Crosby)

"Does the product itself cause (minimum) loss to the company after leaving the factory?" (Taguchi source I)

"Quality must be achieved in five basic areas: people, means, methods, materials and environment to ensure that customer needs are met" (Newell and Dell)

"Build the foundation of your business"

"Predictable consistency and reliability"

"A formula I win you win" (Bill Clinton)

Keep Toyota within the specified tolerance

What is not quality - or: non

quality

Try to define what we can't understand

quality

After giving some definitions of "quality", let's try to understand what must not be defined in this way.

"Quality" should not be a "turnkey" package pre packaged by the on duty consultant and placed in the reality of the organization for use and consumption by the certification authority. As a counterpart, this type of quality pays for the bureaucracy necessary to maintain the facade system and the benefits of overturning the working methods obtained from many years of experience, while the advantages of the new method have not been substantially improved.

It is not enough to impose rules and pursue compliance standards to meet the quality level achieved. Anyone who tells you anything else misunderstands the true meaning of the concept conveyed by reference legislation.

"Quality" is not the work you have done to adapt to your daily commitments when you have time to do it.

If someone tells you "I don't have time to think about quality, I have to produce", you can be sure that this person doesn't really understand what you're talking about.

"Quality" cannot tolerate errors

"Quality" must be professional

Quality type and type

How many quality types are there

The quality can be:

wait for

Designed

publish

perception

Comparative

Expected quality

It refers to the quality of the quality standard that the customer considers sufficient

。 It is expected to be the minimum performance of the product / service.

Requirements related to the expected quality can be expressed or not expressed (in this case, they are defined as implied). Organizations must be very good at testing the expected quality, because they must plan the quality they want to deliver according to the needs and wishes of customers.

Quality design

It is the quality that the organization aims to achieve, trying to transform the needs of customers into satisfied requirements. In order to design quality, it is necessary to set performance goals in the design / production process or service delivery stage and develop them in the best way.

The gap between customer expectations (expected quality) and organizational plan delivery (design quality) can be defined as the understanding gap. This lack of understanding will inevitably lead to major problems affecting downstream products / services.

Delivery quality

It refers to the quality related to the product / service at the end of the production process or service delivery. It refers to the quality level actually achieved, which may be different from the design level.

The gap between what the organization believes the customer should receive (the quality of design) and what the organization actually provides (the quality of delivery) can be defined as the achievement gap.

Perceived quality

This is the quality found by the customer in the products / services we provide, and expressed his satisfaction. This quality applies to the irrational field and to the customer's feeling and emotional world. This is a very important stage because it can build or not build customer loyalty. It is very important for organizations to take action to understand customers' opinions (through telephone interviews, sending questionnaires, satisfaction surveys, etc.)

。 What customers have (perceived quality) is a gap that can be defined as a communication gap.

Quality comparison

Customers compare quality by referring to previous experience, market, especially competition.

Quality and environment

Environment and quality are closely linked

factor

The environment in which an organization operates consists of several elements:

customer

Provider

competitor

economic situation

Technological evolution

mechanism

Social and political aspects

wait.

The first three have the greatest impact on it, which can be summarized by the word "market".

Compared with the past, the operating environment of the company has changed greatly. Among the most significant changes in recent years, we mentioned:

The globalization of the market has led to the disappearance of geographical barriers and some business protection, the change of customer mentality and habits, and the new challenges faced by emerging countries. The increase in complexity and variability comes at the expense of predictability

High tech innovation leading to instant access to information and increasingly complex products / services

More intense competition helps to shift the level of excellence to a higher level and forces organizations to do everything they can in terms of quality, cost, service level, product customization, distribution specificity and response flexibility to make products when and where they are needed.

The end of many established balances, such as monopolies

Higher level of education and discrimination of customers

Such organizations find that the new environment in which they must compete requires lean and flexible production and can adapt to the changing needs of customers.

There is no doubt that quality products / services are needed today more than ever before. Today's world cannot afford low quality, because it will even cause casualties due to disqualification, even in some cases, which will be manifested as a very high cost.

Quality can help us face new challenges, which may be one of the reasons why we have found more than 100 awards dedicated to quality and excellence in the world. Doctor. Julan, one of the masters of quality, predicted that the 21st century will be remembered as the century of quality.

Quality advantage

The application of quality contributes to our work

In order to better face the new challenges of the market, managers must:

Clearly know its direction (vision)

Calculate the route and make all necessary adjustments so as not to deviate too far from this direction

Be able to predict what may happen, analyze the operating environment and solve it in the best way, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the organization it leads and its collaborators

Use tools to control their processes

Quality is one of the main tools of management. Every excellent manager should thoroughly understand its principles and use these principles to convey more attention to their partners, cultivate prevention awareness and add value to their activities.

The application of quality serves many purposes within the organization. The main contents we mentioned include:

Demonstrate the ability to continuously provide qualified and reliable products / services. The organization is committed to continuously seeking evidence of improvement

Provide discipline and better organize work. In fact, regular inspections by non partisan organizations will inevitably lead to routine revisions to their management systems, which will help to root out the idea that you must always do a good job

Support the standardization and optimization of processes, improve their effectiveness and efficiency and increase their repeatability

Support human resource development and encourage all employees to conduct continuous self-assessment

Reduce the number of nonconforming products and internal costs caused by rejection or rework, as well as the number of inspections / inspections

Provide documents explaining how best to carry out various activities to reduce the frequency of possible quality degradation

Record the company's knowledge and become a resource for training new employees

Instill greater pride in the organization's products / services and the satisfaction of doing a good job

Help the organization make a rational and objective evaluation of its supplier group

Improve customer satisfaction by helping simplify follow-up visits

Taking certification as a stepping stone to start the journey of total quality

No matter what method is used to manage the organization, quality is a very useful tool to understand:

If the method is economical - financial, quality supports us by teaching us how to measure non quality costs

If this method is implemented through process management, quality supports us to measure its performance and accurately analyze the process

If the method is based on marketing, quality teaches us to understand the customer's wishes and his unspoken requirements

Finally, if we adopt a behavior based approach, quality will help us better understand the needs of internal customers and improve the culture of organization and teamwork

When quality doesn't help

In some cases, quality cannot help us

When we try to implement quality just because someone (customer, market, competitor) forces us to do so, quality has no support for us. Approaching the certification process in a reluctant, minimalist manner (designed to meet only the minimum requirements of the reference standard), rather than to gain practical advantages for our organization from all these efforts, is the best way to ensure that the project is not successful, but it is still just bureaucracy.

Quality provides us with an effective opportunity to question ourselves and review our entire organizational structure to highlight its strengths and weaknesses. It can indeed help us improve our work, but it requires a cultural effort, which must be based on humility and recognize that what we have been doing in one way can be done in different ways and may be better. The world is changing, and organizations cannot stand firm.

We need to get rid of our prejudices and our sense of professional correctness, which usually comes from many years of professional experience. Only in this way can we have the necessary spiritual virginity, sit at the hypothetical desk and learn how to really improve our work.

Quality is actually not just heavy furniture that needs dust removal during the audit of the certification authority.