Design and Conformance

• assess the ability of the organisation to meet these needs, • ensure that supplied materials and services reliably meet the required standards of performance and efficiency, • concentrate on the prevention rather than detection philosophy, • educate and train for quality improvement, and • review the quality management systems to maintain progress.

The quality policy must be publicised and understood at all levels of the organisation.

We have defined quality as the degree of satisfaction of customer needs. So the quality of a motor car, or washing machine, or a banking service is the extent to which it meets the requirements of the customer. Before any discussion on quality can take place, therefore, it is necessary to be clear about the purpose of the product, in other words what those customer’s requirements are. The customer may be internal or external to the organisation and his/her satisfaction must be the first and most important ingredient in any plan for success. The quality of any product or service has two distinct but interrelated aspects:

• Quality of design • Quality of conformance to design

Quality of design. This is a measure of how well the product or service is designed to meet the customer requirements. If the quality of design is low, the product/service will not satisfy the requirements. The most important feature of the design, with regard to the achievement of the required product quality, is the specification. This describes and defines the product or service and should be a comprehensive statement of all aspects of it that must be present to meet customer requirements. The stipulation of the correct specification is vital in the purchase of materials and services for use in the transformation process. All too frequently, the terms as previously supplied or as agreed with your representative are to be found on purchase orders for suppliers. The importance of obtaining quality inputs cannot be overemphasised, and this cannot be achieved without adequate specifications. A specification may be expressed in terms of