Introducing Quality of Service Criteria into Supply Chain Management for Excellence

This article is focused on a sub domain of quality, namely, quality of service. Considering supply chain management, the authors believe that it is important to distinguish between a quality of product (also service) offered by producers and service providers and a quality of service which is achieved between any supplier and customer, not only a consumer, along a supply chain. Quality of product represents producer’s/service provider’s commitment and is subject of various quality certificates issued by inspection authorities. This research examines the quality of service, which is provided by a supplier to its customer along the supply chain, between any pair of chain elements fulfilling this relation, including the common retailer-consumer relation. The authors introduce measurement points into a consumer-centric supply chain model for the defined criteria and defined the method of their monitoring and overall supply chain quality of service evaluation. Finally, the authors assess the envisaged impact of the results of their measurements on supply chain excellence, providing management with an opportunity to identify weak spots.