What is Quality? “Meeting expectations” and being “suitable for functions” are two definitions of quality.
A product is said to be of high quality if it meets the customer’s expectations for performance, grade, durability, appearance, and intended use/purpose, among other things.
Quality Definitions
The term “Quality” has several meanings and definitions, which are listed below:
Fitness for use/purpose: A component is deemed high quality if it performs well in the equipment for which it was designed. In other words, the product must be appropriate for its intended use/purpose. As a result, it is characterized as fitness for purpose.
For example, a gear used in a sugarcane juice extraction machine may not have the same surface smoothness, tolerance, and precision as a gear used in a lathe’s top stock.
However, it may be deemed excellent if it performs effectively in the juice extraction machine. As a result, quality is defined as “fitness for use/purpose” at the most basic economic level.
Conformance to requirements: The capacity of the material/component to operate successfully in the application for which the user intends it. Thus, product quality denotes compliance with client needs. This is a Manufacturing-based definition.
Grade: It is a distinguishing attribute or grade of a product in terms of appearance, performance, longevity, dependability, flavor, and maintainability, among other things. This is referred to as quality attributes.
Degree of Excellence: It measures a degree of quality at a reasonable price and variability control at a reasonable price. This is often a value-based definition.
Degree of preference: The degree to which a given product is favored over rival items of similar quality, as determined by a comparison test conducted by consumers, is sometimes referred to as customer preference.
The measure of promise fulfillment: The quality of a product may be a measure of the fulfillment of promises made to purchasers/users.
Definition by ISO: ISO defines it as “the totality of qualities and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its capacity to meet expressed or implicit customer demands.”
