Super series are a set of workbooks to accompany the flexible learning programme specifically designed and developed by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) to support their Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management. The learning content is also closely aligned to the Level 3 S/NVQ in Management. The series consists of 35 workbooks. Each book will map on to a course unit (35 books/units).
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Yes, you can access Providing Quality to Customers by Institute of Leadership & Management in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Is quality the same as excellence, and if so, how do we know when something is excellent? What makes one thing of higher quality than another? Why is quality important: what benefits does it bring? Should you expect to pay more for quality goods and services? What is ISO 9000?
âRule number 1: the customer is always right. Rule number 2: if the customer is wrong, see rule number 1.â â Dennis F. Kehoe, The Fundamentals of Quality Management, Chapman and Hall.
By the time you have finished reading this session, the answers to these and other related questions should become clearer. We start by establishing definitions, because quality is one of those words that is much used and little understood.
Assuming we know what quality is, how can we ensure that we deliver it? To achieve this, any supplier organization has to find out, firstly, what the customer wants, so that goods or services can be designed to meet those wants. The organizationâs customer is the one who ultimately makes all the decisions about quality, and sets all the standards. Thatâs an important lesson to learn: whenever we consider quality, our main focus has to be on the customer.
The second step for the supplier is to ensure that the product or service conforms with the agreed design. In addition, so as to ensure that the required level of quality is delivered to the customer, the organization has to set up a system of quality management, which includes quality assurance and quality control.
2 Defining quality
You may well already have your own views about quality: what it is and how to achieve it. Letâs start by seeing how far we agree.
2.1 What quality is
âQualityâ is something which is talked about a lot at work and more generally. But do we all mean the same thing when we use the term?
Activity 1
Define the word âqualityâ in your own words. Think about your own job and organization as you answer this. What do you mean when you talk about âqualityâ at work?
There have been a number of definitions given of quality. If we look to some famous experts in the subject, we find that they define quality in the following ways:
âMeeting of customersâ needsâ (W. Edwards Deming);
âFitness for useâ ( J.M. Juran);
âConformance to requirementsâ (Philip B. Crosby).
Others textbook definitions include:
âmeeting, or exceeding, customer requirementsâ;
âthe degree to which a product or service satisfies customersâ requirementsâ.
Perhaps you worded your definition something along these lines, or said that quality means âdoing things right first timeâ or âdelivering goods or services of the highest standardâ. You may even have quoted the words in the workbook introduction, and said that quality is whatever the customer wants it to mean.
As you would expect, there is an âofficialâ definition given in the International Organization for Standardizationâs ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems. Fundamentals and Vocabulary.
Quality is the: âdegree to which a set of characteristics fulfils requirementsâ.
A requirement is defined as a: âneed or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatoryâ.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up in the 1940s to develop international standards that could be accepted by all its members. Its members come from over 120 national standards bodies including the British Standards Institution (BSI).
We will be discussing the ISO 9000 family of standards in more detail later in this book.
Activity 2
Read the ISO 9000:2000 definition again. An âobligatoryâ need is most usually one required by law, but whose âstatedâ or âgenerally impliedâ needs do you think are to be fulfilled?
The customer is not always the same as the âuserâ or âconsumerâ. For example, if you buy your dog a tin of pet food, you are the customer, and the dog is the consumer.
The simplest and best answer to this question is âthe customersâ needsâ. Customers are the people who buy or use the goods or services provided by an organization.
Every organization has customers. Where products or ser...
