Providing Quality to Customers

Institute of Leadership & Management

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136370915
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

Super series are a set of workbooks to accompany the flexible learning programme specifically designed and developed by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) to support their Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management. The learning content is also closely aligned to the Level 3 S/NVQ in Management. The series consists of 35 workbooks. Each book will map on to a course unit (35 books/units).

Session A
Quality and customers

1 Introduction

What is quality?

Is quality the same as excellence, and if so, how do we know when something is excellent? What makes one thing of higher quality than another? Why is quality important: what benefits does it bring? Should you expect to pay more for quality goods and services? What is ISO 9000?

‘Rule number 1: the customer is always right. Rule number 2: if the customer is wrong, see rule number 1.’ – Dennis F. Kehoe, The Fundamentals of Quality Management, Chapman and Hall.

By the time you have finished reading this session, the answers to these and other related questions should become clearer. We start by establishing definitions, because quality is one of those words that is much used and little understood. Assuming we know what quality is, how can we ensure that we deliver it? To achieve this, any supplier organization has to find out, firstly, what the customer wants, so that goods or services can be designed to meet those wants. The organization’s customer is the one who ultimately makes all the decisions about quality, and sets all the standards. That’s an important lesson to learn: whenever we consider quality, our main focus has to be on the customer. The second step for the supplier is to ensure that the product or service conforms with the agreed design. In addition, so as to ensure that the required level of quality is delivered to the customer, the organization has to set up a system of quality management, which includes quality assurance and quality control.

2 Defining quality

You may well already have your own views about quality: what it is and how to achieve it. Let’s start by seeing how far we agree.

2.1 What quality is

‘Quality’ is something which is talked about a lot at work and more generally. But do we all mean the same thing when we use the term?

Activity 1

Define the word ‘quality’ in your own words. Think about your own job and organization as you answer this. What do you mean when you talk about ‘quality’ at work?

There have been a number of definitions given of quality. If we look to some famous experts in the subject, we find that they define quality in the following ways:

‘Meeting of customers’ needs’ (W. Edwards Deming);

‘Fitness for use’ ( J.M. Juran);

‘Conformance to requirements’ (Philip B. Crosby).

Others textbook definitions include:

‘meeting, or exceeding, customer requirements’;

‘the degree to which a product or service satisfies customers’ requirements’.

Perhaps you worded your definition something along these lines, or said that quality means ‘doing things right first time’ or ‘delivering goods or services of the highest standard’. You may even have quoted the words in the workbook introduction, and said that quality is whatever the customer wants it to mean.

As you would expect, there is an ‘official’ definition given in the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems. Fundamentals and Vocabulary.

Quality is the: ‘degree to which a set of characteristics fulfils requirements’.

A requirement is defined as a: ‘need or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatory’.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up in the 1940s to develop international standards that could be accepted by all its members. Its members come from over 120 national standards bodies including the British Standards Institution (BSI).

We will be discussing the ISO 9000 family of standards in more detail later in this book.

Activity 2

Read the ISO 9000:2000 definition again. An ‘obligatory’ need is most usually one required by law, but whose ‘stated’ or ‘generally implied’ needs do you think are to be fulfilled?

The customer is not always the same as the ‘user’ or ‘consumer’. For example, if you buy your dog a tin of pet food, you are the customer, and the dog is the consumer.

The simplest and best answer to this question is ‘the customers’ needs’. Customers are the people who buy or use the goods or services provided by an organization. Every organization has customers. Where products or ser...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series preface
• Unit specification
• Workbook introduction
• Session A Quality and customers
• Session B Towards total quality
• Session C Practical steps to quality
• Performance checks
• Reflect and review