We hear the word "quality" everywhere in industry, administration and services. Yet it does not mean a luxury product or an expensive service. At heart, quality is the ability of a product or service to meet the needs and expectations of those who use it — consistently.
Complementary definitions
The international standard ISO 9000 defines quality as "the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements". Requirements — stated, implied or mandatory — sit at the centre of the definition.
Two elements of this definition deserve a closer look. Inherent characteristics are those that exist in the object itself, such as the accuracy of the data in an administrative document or the time a user has to wait; they differ from assigned characteristics such as price, which the standard does not count as quality characteristics. Requirements, for their part, are not limited to what is written in contracts and technical specifications: they also cover what users expect without saying so, and what laws and regulations impose.
The standard also distinguishes quality from grade: the category or rank given to different requirements for objects that have the same functional use, such as classes of airline tickets or categories of hotels. A modestly rated hotel can be of high quality because it delivers what it promises, while a luxury hotel can disappoint its guests. Quality, in other words, is not a synonym for luxury.
The pioneers of quality offered complementary views:
- Joseph Juran: quality is "fitness for use" — doing the job it was acquired for.
- Philip Crosby: quality is "conformance to requirements", with prevention rather than correction.
- W. Edwards Deming: quality is built into the system and its processes, and improves continually from an understanding of the user.
ISO 9000 stresses an idea that ties these views together: the quality of products and services includes not only their intended function and performance, but also their perceived value and the benefit users draw from them. This is the shift from conformance to value.
From inspection to a shared culture
Quality evolved in stages: final inspection to sort out defects, then statistical control during production, then quality assurance building trust through documented systems, and finally total quality management, which makes quality everyone’s business.
At each stage the scope of quality widened: from the finished product to the processes that make it, then to the management system that governs those processes, and finally to the whole organization and its relationships with users, suppliers and society. No stage cancelled the one before: inspection is still necessary, but it is no longer the only tool, nor the most important one.
Dimensions of quality
David Garvin proposed eight dimensions of product quality: performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality. For services, dimensions such as responsiveness, reliability and courtesy come to the fore.
The SERVQUAL model, developed by the researchers Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, sets out five dimensions of service quality: tangibles, such as premises and equipment; reliability; responsiveness; assurance, which inspires confidence; and empathy towards the user.
The Kano model is a reminder that user requirements are not all of one kind. Basic requirements go unnoticed when they are met but cause dissatisfaction when they are missing; performance requirements raise satisfaction as they improve; and attractive features delight users precisely because they did not expect them. Over time, attractive features tend to become basic requirements.
The cost of poor quality
Quality is not free, but its absence costs more. A common model distinguishes:
- prevention costs: training, planning, process design;
- appraisal costs: inspection, measurement, audit;
- internal failure costs: rework and waste before delivery;
- external failure costs: complaints, returns, lost trust.
The value of this model lies in the fact that failure costs often remain hidden: time lost looking for a file, work done twice, a user who never comes back and never complains. The logic of quality therefore directs investment towards prevention and sound design, rather than relying on late inspection.
Every dinar invested in prevention reduces failure costs that do not always show up in the accounts.
A worked example: a municipal service desk
Consider a municipal desk that issues civil status documents. The stated requirements are clear: a document with accurate data, issued within the set time; the mandatory requirements come from the regulations. The implied requirements include a courteous welcome, clear information on the supporting documents needed and a fair queuing system. If the department only checks documents before handing them over, it will catch some errors, but it will bear the cost of reissuing them, and some will slip through, forcing citizens to come back. If, instead, it analyses the causes of errors, standardizes data entry, trains staff and displays a clear list of required documents, it moves from correction to prevention, and from formal conformance to value that citizens can actually feel.
How to start
- Identify the users of each product or service and gather their stated, implied and mandatory requirements.
- Turn each requirement into a measurable characteristic, such as waiting time or data accuracy.
- Measure the current situation and estimate failure costs, both visible and hidden.
- Direct effort towards prevention: process design, training and clear instructions.
- Set up permanent listening channels, such as complaint analysis, surveys and direct observation.
Common mistakes
- Confusing quality with luxury or a high price.
- Confining quality to the inspection department or to final checks.
- Settling for conformance to internal specifications without checking what users actually value.
- Neglecting implied requirements because they are not written down.
- Ignoring the hidden costs of poor quality because they do not show up in the accounts.
