Quality Management Concepts and Total Quality Management

Quality

refers to the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations.

Performance

Main characteristics of the product.

Aesthetics

appearance, feel, smell, taste

Special features

Extra characteristics.

Conformance

How well a product corresponds to design specifications.

Reliability

Dependable performance.

Durability

Ability to perform over time.

Perceived quality

Indirect evaluation of quality (reputation).

Serviceability

Handling of complaints or repairs.

Consistency (Product Quality)

Quality doesn't vary.

Convenience

The availability and accessibility of the service.

Responsiveness

The willingness of service providers to help customers in unusual situations and to deal with problems.

Time

The speed with which service is delivered.

Assurance

The knowledge exhibited by personnel who come into contact with a customer and their ability to convey trust.

Courtesy

The way customers are treated by employees who come into contact with them.

Tangibles

The physical appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials.

Consistency (Service Quality)

The ability to provide the same level of good quality repeatedly.

Expectations

Meet (or exceed) customer expectations.

Quality of Design

The intention of designers to include or exclude features in a product or service.

Quality of Conformance

The degree to which goods or services conform to the intent of the designers.

Ease of Use

Ease of use and user instructions are important; customers must be clearly informed on what they should or should not do.

Appraisal Costs

Costs related to inspection, testing, and other activities intended to uncover defective products or services.

Prevention Costs

Costs of preventing defects from occurring, including planning, administration, and quality control procedures.

Failure Costs

Costs caused by defective parts or products or by faulty services.

Internal Failures

failures discovered during production

External Failures

failures discovered after delivery to the customer.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

A philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction.

Continuous Improvement

Philosophy that seeks to make never-ending improvements to the process of converting inputs to outputs.

Competitive Benchmarking

Identifying other organizations that are the best at something and studying how they do it to learn how to improve operation.

Employee Empowerment

Giving workers the responsibility for improvements and the authority to make changes to accomplish them.

Team Approach

The use of teams for problem solving and to achieve consensus.

Decisions based on facts

Management gathers and analyzes data as basis for decision making.

Knowledge of Tools

Employees and managers are trained in the use of quality tools.

Supplier Quality

Suppliers must be included in quality assurance and quality improvement efforts.