The Blacksmith’s Anvil
Barringer & Associates,
Inc.,
QUALITY
The definition of quality is very broad:
Quality: The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service
that bear on its ability to satisfy a given need. This
provides a fitness for purpose sense relating to the ability of goods or
services to satisfy a given need.
Manufacturing wants and needs a more understandable definition for
their environment:
Quality
for manufacturing: Manufacturing quality is conformance of the
product to engineering’s drawings and specifications. This
provides a quantitative sense for evaluations known as quality levels of
conformance.
Manufacturing’s specific, understandable, and restricted quality target
affects each of us. It impacts
productivity, costs, delivery schedules, and our productive skills. Hitting manufacturing’s target for quality
(as specified by engineering’s drawings) influences how we operate our
machines, the class of people we hire, raw materials we purchase, workmanship
standards agreed upon between engineering and manufacturing, teamwork, and
cooperative attitudes.
Quality and grade are not
the same words. Grade involves a process
for ranking or sorting of products and features for a comparative sense for the
degree of excellence. One well known
merchandiser provides good examples of product grades listed for sale as: good,
better, best. We can distinguish between
aspects of quality and grade:
Grade: A rank indication of the degree of refinement, features, or
capabilities for materials and products.
When grade is applied to a service, it represents the diversity of
functions or facilities provided. High
grade products have low quality if they do not meet specifications. Low-grade products have high quality if they
meet or exceed the specifications.
Grade
definition: Engineering drawings define product
grade. Some people describe this grade
concept as quality. However, quality
encompasses more than product grade rankings.
Manufacturing quality:
Manufacturing builds a quality product by meeting, in every way, the
requirements listed on engineering drawings and specifications. We can measure out-going product quality to
verify how manufacturing is doing.
Higher grade products have more features and cost more to manufacture
than lower grades. Hitting conformance targets
the first time logically results in lower product cost regardless of the
product grade. For manufacturing,
conformance cost is lower than high cost non-conformance. Do it right the first time is usually a less
expensive production strategy.
Quality is in the eye of the buyer—not the seller.
Quality is a statement of what the end user wants and can afford. It does not mean buyers always want high
grade or low-grade items. Quality means
satisfying the buyers given needs for uniformity, consistency, and conformity
to their requirements. Quality includes
price, delivery, and fitness for use.
Product quality also includes maintenance, service, reuse, and etc.—as
viewed by the buyer.
End users definitions about quality products change with their needs. This change occurs even though the product
design and manufacturing results match a fixed benchmark. End user “fickleness” is why product grades
must change to meet needs of the market place.
If products don’t change to meet user requirements, new end users will
claim the old benchmarked products have poor quality because they do not meet
their immediate needs.
Marketing deals with customers who change their
requirements. Product engineering
interprets marketing’s view of customer requirements with drawings and
specifications which establishes manufacturing’s requirements. Manufacturing uses these requirements for
making parts. In a changing market
place, manufacturing’s target stays the same: Products must conform to product engineering’s requirements. How well manufacturing hits the quality
target determines success since the
bulls-eye for manufacturing is conformance to the engineering requirements. Of course, do not forget that manufacturing
is also obliged to meet special requirements on the sales order for details not
listed on the drawing because these special conditions are part of the contract
between buyer and seller.
Quality
is: Satisfaction for
customers. Quality is conformance for
manufacturing and pride for craftsmen.
Quality is opportunity for marketing and a challenge for
engineering. Quality is an investment
for owners. Quality products, free of
defects, delivered at a reasonable costs are poverty for competitors,
destitution for trial lawyers, cost reductions for accountants, reliability and
predictability for end users, repeat orders for sales representatives, and
happiness for the CEO. Supplying quality
products provides jobs and security for you and me.
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