Quality Management on the Demand Side

Quality means providing value to the customer, that is, offering conditions of product use or service that meet or exceed customer’s expectations, yet are still affordable. Quality also takes into account the reduction of waste that a product may cause to the environment or human society, yet still allowing the manufacturing company to maintain customer satisfaction. Another interesting element within the concept of quality is the “wow” effect. Quality delivers to the customer not only what he wants, but also what he never imagined he wanted—and that once he has it, he realizes that this product was exactly what he always had wanted. However, this is still a very subjective judgment. In today’s world, companies are still struggling to be consistent in meeting basic customer needs. Quality is the degree to which an object or entity (e.g., process, product, or service) satisfies a specified set of attributes or requirements. The quality of something can be determined by comparing a set of inherent characteristics with a set of requirements. If those inherent characteristics meet all requirements, high or excellent quality is achieved. If those characteristics do not meet all requirements, a low or poor level of quality is achieved. Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements, a subjective term for which each person or sector has its own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings: In the end, quality is an outcome, a characteristic of a good or service provided to a customer, and the hallmark of an organization which has satisfied all of its stakeholders. Customer requirements are the core ideal behind all quality definitions. Other factors related to quality are exact and desired amount of the product to be manufactured and offered, pace of product distribution, speed of customer service, appropriate pricing in line with supply and demand pressures, degree of accuracy with which a product is manufactured concerning its design, ease of use and safety, reliability, impact the product has on the society and the environment, etc. Figure 13.1 depicts that quality is related to value, which customers expect to be delivered from a company as part of the input-transformation-output model (Helmold & Terry, 2021). Quality elements are demanded and expected in line with the optimal cost and on-time delivery. Additionally, customers have additional expectations (alpha) in terms of friendliness, competencies of personnel, or sustainability.