Quality: a customer's perception of the value of a product or service; organizations, theorists, and dictionaries define it differently.
The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs= Griffin
TWO (2) Perspectives on Quality
• Consumer Perspective
– Quality can be defined as the degree to which the product or service meets the expectations of the customer.
• Producer Perspective
– Quality can be defined as the degree to which the product or service conforms to design specifications.
(Prominent Quality Management Philosophers)
W. Edwards Deming
– Perhaps the most prominent quality philosopher, he devised a 14-point plan to summarize his philosophy on quality improvement.
Joseph Juran
– Observed that over 80 percent of quality defects are caused by factors controllable by management.
– Developed a trilogy of planning, control, and implementation.
Armand Feigenbaum
– Introduced the concept of total quality control.
Kaoru Ishikawa
– Introduced quality control circles.
Philip Crosby
– Introduced the philosophy that “quality is free.”
Well-known definitions include:
"Conformance to requirements" (Crosby)
"The efficient production of the quality that the market expects" (Deming)
"Fitness for use"; "product performance and freedom from deficiencies" (Juran)
"The total composite product and service characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the expectations of the customer" (Felgenbaum)
"Anything that can be improved" (Imal)
"Meeting or exceeding customer expectations at a cost that represents value to them" (Harrington)
"Does not impart loss to society" (Taguchi)
"The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a given need" (American Society for Quality Control)
"degree of excellence" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary)
