Understanding Quality: From Concept to Practice

Quality Concept

• Quality Product
• Quality of Service
• Quality of Care

Defining Quality

There may be different definitions:

• According to the dictionary
• According to UNE-EN-ISO 9000:2000
• Specialty-based: focus on technical, financial, or customer aspects
• The Organization for European-based Quality Control (EOQC)

A quality product or service represents the degree that covers the client's requirements which were used, and the result of quality design and quality of manufacture.

Top Quality

• Satisfaction of needs and customer expectations (consumers, users, members of the organization, shareholders, society, etc.)
• The least-cost associated, linked to an efficient use of resources
• The use of continuous improvement as a method
• The applicability to all processes and activities
• The necessary involvement and participation of all people of the organization.

Very Important

Unlike what is popularly believed, quality is not associated with the perfection of the product but rather with satisfying the expectations or needs of the customer, consumer, or user.

A Little History

The Origins of Quality

Primitive societies manufactured useful items from stone. The artisans who selected the material, labored, and produced the product elaborated high quality by ensuring the material's integrity.

The Medieval Period: Guilds

Early attempts at collective organization of quality, each guild imposed their own criteria for the selection of raw materials, the processes of elaboration, and the specification of quality control of the products. Quality was achieved by simply checking the finished product.

Industrial Revolution

The craftsmen are replaced by large manufacturing plants and mass production.

It passes a standardized quality at a lower price.

New working methods are imposed: inspection of commodities, performing the work on procedures, quality tests by assay, and inspections on manufactured goods.

Scientific organization of work appears: this has increased labor productivity. Some measures of this organization are:

• Decomposition of labor into different phases
• Study of movements
• Employee time
• Economic incentives

After the Second World War

Inspection and statistical control for sampling appear.

The Japanese Miracle

It consisted of a national pact for a production qualitatively superior to that of their competitors and the use of techniques, strategies, and tools used by their quality competitors with consequences: reduced costs and increased productivity. At the same time, there is a strong orientation to the satisfaction of customer needs and flexibility of reaction to the variation of these needs. The result of all this is a high level of efficiency and competitiveness.

Given the success of the Japanese model, the U.S. and Europe apply this method not only to manufacturing companies but also to service companies such as health, education, environment, etc.

A World Without Borders

The need to increase due to the formalization and generalization of the techniques, methods, and procedures of quality comes the need to have some reference pattern that serves to unify, simplify, and specify the shape of things. Thus, the rules appear first nationally and later internationally. These rules standardize methods used for testing, products, actions in terms of environmental management of prevention, occupational health, manufacturing processes, etc.