BCPC 206: Introduction to Total Quality Management - Quality Definitions, Concepts and Models

Quality Definitions and Concepts

Learning Outcomes

Define quality from different perspectives and generate a personal definition.
Explore and describe various concepts of explaining quality.
Apply the knowledge acquired to solve real-world challenges.

Quality Definitions

Juran: Quality is defined as "Product performance that results in customer satisfaction and freedom from deficiencies and avoids customer dissatisfaction, in short, fitness to use by the customer."
Deming: "A product or a service has or possess quality if it helps somebody and enjoys a good and sustainable market."
Crosby: Quality is defined as "Complying with clear specifications and that management is responsible for establishing unequivocal or clear specifications."
IFST (Institute of Food Science and Technology): Quality is “The degree or standard of excellence or fitness for purpose”.
ANSI (American National Standard Institute): Quality as “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on itself the ability to satisfy given needs”.
ISO (International Organisation for Standardization): Quality as “The means of achieving sustained customer satisfaction through meeting customer needs and expectations within the organisational environment committed to continual improvement of efficiency and effectiveness”.
Alabi, 2017: Quality as “The ability to meet and exceed customer expectations”.

E-SERVQUAL Model (Raza and Umer, 2020)

Modified e-SERVQUAL Model consists of:
- Site Organization
- Personal Needs
- User Friendliness
- Responsiveness
- Reliability
- Efficiency
- Electronic Customer Satisfaction
- Electronic Customer Loyalty
Site Organisation
- Refers to the outlook and functional management of the website.
- Website aesthetics, colors, sections, and images can improve electronic service quality and enhance user experience.
Reliability
- Capability to complete an agreed task unfailingly and correctly.
- Reliability over the online task can increase user involvement and encourage repeat usage.
- Users need to be certain that the source is secure and that their personal data is kept confidential.
Responsiveness
- Promptness of reply provided by operators of e-platforms to users.
- Responsiveness can retain user interest and enhance satisfaction and faithfulness.
- Timely responses to complaints and demands are important.
User Friendliness
- Ease of service use.
- Includes plug-ins for impaired or physically disabled users.
- Can provide a competitive advantage.
Personal Needs
- Understanding user needs can help businesses initiate new features to increase fulfillment and faithfulness.
- Acknowledging user demographics (age, sex, lifestyle) and preferences leads to meeting accurate demands.
Efficiency
- Vital for maintaining user faithfulness and ensuring user fulfillment.
- Users tend to be happy and faithful when their demands are efficiently fulfilled.
- User needs and answers need to be handled efficiently through the website system.
- Loyalty and satisfaction increase when transactions are completed efficiently.
Electronic Customer Satisfaction
- Customer’s fulfillment in Internet business is the appraisal of how the service provided has met customer expectations.
Electronic Customer Loyalty
- Primarily concerned with keeping consumers online by addressing their questions and issues.

Quality Viewpoints (Evans & Lindsey, 1996)

Judgemental Based View:
- Quality is synonymous with excellence or superiority.
- Loosely related to product characteristics, more of an image from marketing.
- Examples: Rolex watches, exotic bags, and perfumes.
Product Based View:
- Quality is a function of a specific measurable variable.
- Differences in quality are reflected in differences in the quantity of those specified variables.
- Mistakenly associates quality with price (higher price = higher quality).
User Based View:
- Quality is determined by what consumers want (fitness for intended use).
- If a product/service is not fit for its purpose, it is not quality.
Value Based View:
- Quality is the usefulness or satisfaction derived from a product in relation to its price.
- Wanting a product/service that meets needs at a comparatively lower price.
Manufacturing Based View:
- Quality is the desirable outcome of engineering practice.
- Quality is determined by its conformance to specifications.

Product and Service Dimensions

Manufacturing Organizations

Conformance to specifications
Performance
Reliability
Features
Durability
Serviceability

Service Organizations

Tangible factors
Consistency
Responsiveness to customer needs
Courtesy/friendliness
Timeliness/promptness
Atmosphere

Quality Dimensions

Dimensions of Product (Garvin, 1984)

Performance: Primary operating characteristics.
Features: Secondary operating characteristics, additional properties.
Conformance: Degree to which physical and performance characteristics comply with pre-established standards.
Reliability: Probability of a product surviving over a specified period under stated conditions.
Durability: Amount of use before physical deterioration or need for repairs.
Aesthetics: How a product looks, feels, and sounds.
Serviceability: After-sales relationship, e.g., speed and competency in repairs.
Perceived Image: Subjective assessment resulting from image, advertising, or brand name.

Dimensions of Service (Evans & Lindsey, 1996)

Accuracy: Correct performance of the service.
Courtesy: Friendliness and politeness of employees.
Completeness: Correctness of the delivery of the service.
Timeliness: Completion of the service at the agreed time.
Expertise and customisation of service personnel: Ability of the service to be tailored to suit the customer’s unique demands.
Responsiveness: Quick response of service personnel to unexpected problems.
Accessibility & Convenience: Ease of obtaining the service or information.
Time: Waiting time before the service was delivered.

Dimensions of Service (Parasuraman, 1988)

Empathy: Putting yourself in the position of others.
Assurance: Confidence in the delivery of the service.
Responsiveness: Ability to respond or deal with an unexpected situation.
Reliability: Whether the service can be depended on or not.
Tangibles: Appearance of the building and the employees rendering the service.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Quality Attributes (Van Trijp Et Al, 1996 & Steenkamp, 1989)

Intrinsic Quality Attributes: Directly linked to the product/service and are part of it; cannot be separated.
Extrinsic Attributes: Not directly linked to the product/service; not part of it.
- Extrinsic: Brand names, price, packaging.
- Intrinsic: Color of food, nutrition, taste.
- Packaging (e.g., pharmaceutical capsule) can be intrinsic if it serves as part of the product.

Critical Success Factors in TQM

Leadership and top management commitment
Education and training
Quality culture
Continuous improvement
Strategic management
Benchmarking
Supplier quality management
Process and product design
Customer focus
Quality information analysis
Process management
Employees involvement
Quality assurance
Product innovation
Employees empowerment
Quality citizenship
Knowledge management
Statistical Process Control Tools

Quality Guidance Model (Van Trip & Steenkamp, 1998)

Perception about quality is formed based on what people have heard, seen, and experienced.
These inform people’s expectations for future purchases.
$Perception \space of \space Quality \space (PQ) = Experience – Expectations$

The Dimensions of Competition Argument

William Procter (Procter & Gamble):
- Successful products compete on:
  - Cost of the product
  - Availability of the product (level of productivity)
  - Quality of the product
- Competition is solely driven by the product.

The Quality Triangle- Proctor

The quality triangle consists of:
- Cost of the Product
- Quality of the Product
- Availability of Product

The Extended Quality Triangle, Noori et al

The extended quality triangle consists of:
- Quality of the Product
- Serviceability
- Cost of Product
- Dependability
- Availability of the Product
Noori et al (1996):
- Competition is not solely by the product but by the organization.
- An organization with a bad reputation would find it difficult to sell products/services.
- Extension of the triangle with three new dimensions of competition:
  - Dependability
  - Flexibility
  - Serviceability
- It is crucial to maintain the reputation for being:
  - Dependable (does what it promises).
  - Flexible enough to adjust and respond to changes.
  - Serviceable (pre-sale, after-sales, and community service).

Dimensions for Competition

Competition operates at two levels:
- Organizational level
- Product/service level
Both operate at the following dimensions:
- Dependability
- Flexibility
- Serviceability
- Cost of the product
- Availability of the product (level of productivity)
- Quality of the product

Definitions of Quality - Summary

Conformance to specifications: Meeting targets and tolerances determined by designers.
Fitness for use: How well the product performs for its intended use.
Value for price paid: Usefulness for the price paid.
Support services: Support provided after purchase.

Other Definitions of Quality

The degree of excellence (begs a definition of excellence).
Fit for purpose (may not be enough to delight customers).
Meeting customer requirements (lose customers if requirements unmet).
Right first time, every time (good if competition is the same or worse).

Traditional Quality Definition

‘Quality goods or services are those which are of merchantable quality and fit for their purpose and which conform to both the implicit and explicit requirement specifications of the client. The goods or services will also satisfy client expectations in terms of price, availability and esteem and which are then supported by the provider, both within and without their designed life cycle, to the entire satisfaction of the client’