What is Quality?

           Everybody now- a- days takes of Quality, thinks about it and insists for it while purchasing any article. To buy anything we all look for good quality at a reasonable price. Each of us may have a different notion about the quality product. We want as many of the qualities in a product as possible. Quality product or quality service should be provide at an affordable price.

         Question is how we can define quality? In very simple words we may say that quality means " Fitness of use ". So when we talk of quality we mean that the product should be fit for use and it is the user who judges and decides wants in the product. Thus quality is customer's determination and the quality products are those which totally satisfy the needs and expectations of customer in every respect on continuous basis.

         All human institutions, such as factories, schools, hospitals, temples, governments, etc. Exist to products or services to human beings. What is essential in these products or services is that they should be fit for use and provide excellence in service. Such products should be well designed with functional perfection and be produced right in the first instance. If a hospital is well equipped but not serving up to your expectations then the service is not good or the quality of service is poor. If  a factory produces the cars, which give lot of trouble and do not run properly then the car is not fit for use in the real sense or you say the quality of the car is poor. So, whether it is a product or a service it should be fit for use or should be of good quality.

According to ISO: 8402, quality is defined as the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. There has been a wrong notion in minds of a few that quality can be achieved at higher cost. on the other hand experience has shown that it is poor quality that implies waste of material, effort of labor, equipment utilization and thus results in higher cost. One must remember that quality has to be created.

Quality Characteristics:

           Now, let us examine a little more in detail as to what quality. The quality of a product comprises several engineering and manufacturing characteristics which go to make the product meet the ultimate performance expectations of the designer / customer.

What is characteristic?

o   A dimension is a characteristic.

o   A chemical property is a characteristic.

o   A sensory property is a characteristic.

All these characteristics contribute towards the quality of the product. So we can say that appearance of a product is a quality characteristic of the product. Similarly performance, length of life, dependability, reliability, maintainability, the smell, taste, feel, sound, etc. are all characteristic which go to build the quality of the product. Each of these characteristics is like a building block that goes into the construction of, say an arch which may be considered to be quality.

now, for any product to be successful, apart from quality the price also should be reasonable from the buyer's point of view. Today, quality is becoming significant factor in the business strategy planning process.