By Koralia & Nicos Timotheou

In the dictionary, quality is defined as “the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something”.

ISO 8402-1986 - defines quality as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs."

By ISO 9000, quality is the “degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirement”.  It is also referred to as fitness for purpose.

Quality is a characteristic of a product, service or process and it can only be attributed to it after comparison to a baseline.  Comparison can be made to:
  • A standard or specification;
  • Other similar products;
  • Stakeholder expectations;
  • All of the above.
During the past decades, the term “quality” has been saturated and abused.  Sales people and marketers have been using it to pass the message that a product is appealing, strong, durable etc. These, of course, are often constituent parts of quality; but quality cannot be defined in general terms and in isolation of stakeholder opinion and expected performance.  Who wants to buy a clock that is colourful, looks nice, never breaks but doesn’t show the time? 

Therefore, for an organisation to define the quality characteristics of its product/ service, the following should be taken into consideration:
  • Does it meet a need?
  • Does it fulfill all legal requirements (at least)?
  • Does it fulfill all user safety requirements (at least)?
  • Does it operate/ function as expected (or better)?
  • Does it fulfill user/ stakeholder expectations (at least)?

What this means is that quality is seldom static.  User expectations change in time as their needs increase, as competition offers alternatives and as technology makes possibilities endless. 

At the design level, organisations need to have mechanisms in place to:
  • continuously identify and analyse user expectations;
  • be up to date with legal requirements and technological options available; and
  • transform all of the above to inputs to their design and design review process (product / service specifications) and from there to product /service characteristics.

During production, measures are taken to ensure that the product or service produced will conform to the specification. 
Such measures include the use of specified processes, raw materials, constituent parts, competences, competencies and key performance indicators.  This is referred to as "Quality Assurance". 

The term “Quality Control” is used to describe the mechanisms in place so that any deviations from the product / service specification are identified early and fixed – or the product is rejected. In essence, Quality Control makes sure the results of what has been produced are what was specified and expected.

The product is released only after all checks have been performed and the results are up to the expected quality. 

Quality of the final product can be measured, depending on the product, through user questionnaires, monitoring the rate of failure, comparing actual and expected product lifespan...  For services, user questionnaires are more frequent focusing on the extent to which the service has provided an effective solution to a given user problem, or maybe more…  Findings of such monitoring are fed back to the design stage in order to continuously improve quality. 

Quality transcends the whole value chain from specifying consumer needs to product design to designing and building the production process to the supply chain to the production itself to delivery to consumption/usage to disposal. It depends and affects all the organization stakeholders.
  • So corporate processes must be designed, managed and executed in such a way so as to achieve product/ service quality.
  • Similarly, people in an organisation can produce high quality thinking.  This is a personal process and is of equal importance to the organisation. 
In order to produce quality thinking and quality decision-making, one must apply similar principles:
  • the problem/ issue should be recognized and clearly defined;
  • the constraints should be identified;
  • possible solutions and alternatives should be considered, ruled out or shortlisted,  based on the cost-benefit balance; and
  • a decision must be reached.
This process produces effective problem solving and rational decision making, based on facts and data.  In the aftermath, feedback should be sought in order to decide whether the decision was correct.  This adds to the person’s experience and improves his/ her thinking and decision making capacity, for future situations. 

As a conclusion, quality can be both tangible and intangible and is an integral part of the operational environment. Study and awareness of this environment leads to improved quality of the product, service, thinking and decision making.

The successful leader knows that quality is a prerequisite for sustainability in delivering value to the organization’s stakeholders.

18.11.2015