Intermediate Quality Foundation Tutorial: The Evolutionary Journey of the Quality Concept
In the development process of the quality field, the concept of quality is not static but has evolved through several important stages, mainly covering "conformance quality", "fitness for use quality" and "customer (stakeholder) satisfaction quality". These quality concepts at different stages reflect the gradual deepening of people's understanding of quality.
Concept of conformance quality: A measure under the standard
The concept of conformance quality regards the degree of "conformity" to current standards as the basis for measuring quality. At this stage, the focus of enterprises and organizations lies in whether products or services strictly adhere to the established standards. These standards may come from industry regulations, national standards, or requirements set by the enterprise itself. For example, in the manufacturing industry, the produced components need to meet precise dimensional tolerance standards; in the food industry, the product ingredients, use of additives, etc., must comply with relevant food safety standards. This quality concept oriented towards standard conformance ensures the basic quality level of products and services to a certain extent and provides a relatively unified quality measurement benchmark for the market. However, it also has certain limitations because standards are often relatively fixed and may not promptly reflect changes in market demand and customer expectations.
Concept of fitness-for-use quality: Consideration centered around customer needs
The concept of fitness-for-use quality goes beyond the framework of simply following standards and instead uses the degree of suitability for customers' needs as the basis for measuring quality. The proposal of this concept marks the transformation of the quality concept from production orientation to customer orientation. Enterprises have begun to realize that simply meeting the standards is not sufficient to ensure the success of products or services in the market. More importantly, they need to meet the actual needs of customers. For example, a furniture manufacturer not only needs to ensure that the furniture manufacturing process meets industry standards but also needs to consider customers' needs in terms of furniture style, comfort, practicality, etc. The concept of fitness-for-use quality prompts enterprises to gain a deeper understanding of customers' needs and expectations, thereby optimizing various aspects such as product design, production, and service provision to improve the fitness-for-use of products or services.
Generalized quality concept: The fit between characteristics and requirements
The concept of generalized quality further expands the connotation of quality. It defines quality as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements. Here, "inherent characteristics" refer to the intrinsic attributes of products, processes, or systems, while "requirements" include stated, usually implied, or obligatory needs or expectations. The scope of this concept is broader, covering not only product quality but also service quality, process quality, and system quality, among other aspects. For example, the service quality of an airline is not only reflected in aspects such as flight punctuality and in - flight service but also includes multiple links such as the convenience of the booking system and the safety of baggage check - in. The concept of generalized quality emphasizes the comprehensiveness and systematicness of quality, requiring enterprises to manage and improve quality from an overall perspective.
Comparison between the concepts of generalized quality and narrow - sense quality
Dr. Juran conducted an in - depth comparison between the broad concept of quality and the narrow concept of quality. The narrow concept of quality often focuses more on the physical characteristics and technical indicators of products, while the broad concept of quality pays more attention to meeting the needs of various stakeholders. This comparison is presented in detail in Table 1.1 - 1 of the textbook. Through this comparison, we can more clearly see the differences and connections between different quality concepts, so as to better understand the development context of the quality concept. At the same time, Dr. Juran also proposed the famous "Quality Management Trilogy", namely quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. Quality planning is to determine quality objectives and formulate plans to achieve these objectives; quality control is to ensure that processes and products meet the established quality requirements; quality improvement is to continuously improve the quality level to meet the ever - changing market demands and customer expectations.
Understanding of "products" under the concept of generalized quality
To better understand the concept of generalized quality, let's look at a relevant example question. The question is: What should "product" be understood as from the perspective of the generalized quality concept? The options include: A. Tangible finished products; B. Hardware, software, and process materials; C. Hardware, services, and software; D. Hardware, services, software, and process materials. The correct answer is D. This is because under the generalized quality concept, products are not limited to tangible finished products but also include services, software, and process materials. For example, the software products provided by a software company include not only the functions and performance of the software itself but also the after - sales service and technical support of the software. The logistics services provided by a logistics company are also a type of product, which involves multiple links such as cargo transportation, warehousing, and distribution. Therefore, the "product" under the generalized quality concept is a broader concept that encompasses various forms and types of outputs.