5.4.1 - Quality control, TQM and competition

Quality in goods and services

Quality means meeting customers' needs and the required standards consistently. A high price or luxurious appearance does not by itself establish quality. A low-priced product can be good quality if it reliably does what its buyers expect; an expensive product can be poor quality if it fails.

For goods, suitable measures include reliability, safety, accurate dimensions, durability and freedom from defects. An illustrative Chilean shoe producer may specify strong stitching and correct sizes. A beautifully styled shoe with stitching that breaks after normal use fails the required standard. Product design must first identify a suitable standard; production must then achieve it consistently.

Services also have quality standards. Accuracy, punctuality, staff competence and helpfulness can matter even though there is no finished physical product to inspect. An illustrative small Malaysian delivery business may promise intact packages at the agreed time. Customers judge the service by whether that happens, not simply whether a driver is polite. A large international hotel group may need clean rooms and accurate reservations across many locations; local customer expectations and the actual promise still matter.

Standards should be clear enough to check. “Provide a good service” is vague; “record the correct reservation date” or “deliver by the agreed time” identifies an observable requirement. Quality includes customer expectations and relevant safety or other standards, rather than allowing customers' willingness to buy an unsafe product to define it as acceptable.

Quality control

Quality control checks whether products or service performance meet defined standards. It identifies faults so that the business can act before more customers are affected.

Goods can be inspected at stages during production or when finished. An illustrative Portuguese bicycle manufacturer might check welds during assembly and test brakes before dispatch. Failed items can be repaired, reworked or rejected. Checking earlier can prevent an already faulty component moving through more expensive stages; a final check can stop an unsafe bicycle reaching a buyer.

Inspection may check every item or a sample. Sampling saves time and cost, but a sample can miss defects. Inspecting every item requires resources and may be impractical if a test destroys the product. Checks need appropriate standards, accurate tests and staff able to interpret results. Quality control reduces risk; it cannot promise that no defect will ever escape.

For a service, a manager can check reservation records, monitor delivery times or review customer complaints against service standards. Some service failures cannot be undone: discovering a missed flight transfer afterwards does not give the customer their original journey back. Results should lead to corrections and investigation, rather than records that nobody uses.

Checking outputs does not automatically remove their underlying cause. A factory might detect weak seams in finished bags but continue making them with an incorrectly set sewing machine. Materials and work have already been used, and repeated rejection remains costly. This limitation explains why businesses also try to prevent defects throughout their processes.

Total quality management

Total quality management makes quality a responsibility throughout the business, rather than leaving it solely to an inspector at the end. Its emphasis is preventing defects, meeting customer requirements and continually improving processes.