Course Topic: Total Quality Management (TQM)
1. Quality can be described in many ways and may have different meaning for individuals. The international definition of quality is the ‘degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfls requirements’ but in today’s business world, a single definition does not exist. It is generally agreed that is used to distinguish one organization, event, product, service, process , person, result, action or communication from another. A lot of this can be boiled down to the judged object meeting requirements and specifications to satisfy the end consumer.
According to Crosby, quality is an attribute, a characteristic to be judged against a standard/reference point and deemed either correct or incorrect, and thus not a variable – in contrast to the international definition where it signifies a measured degree instead. Moreover, it should not be confused with grade as grade represents the addition of features and characteristics to satisfy additional needs.
2. Quality is of great importance to the company because it is of great importance to the customer. Numerous research data indicates and strongly corroborates the view that quality is the primary buying argument for the ultimate customer and thereby can play as the unique selling point for a firm to differentiate it from its competitors. Moreover, Goodman et al (2000) argues for the importance of quality by saying that quality improvements can be logically linked to enhanced revenue within one’s company allowing companies that produce higher quality to achieve higher margins. The argument connects the fact that the customer is the key reason for a firm’s existence and customer loyalty and retention will allow the company to be successful. This is possibly by providing customers with increasing quality of goods and services that go beyond satisfying their needs, thereby becoming the supplier of choice to their customers and by locking themselves into their...