Quality is the most important consumer characteristic of a product or service. Its required level can be achieved on the basis of criteria determined by the enterprise itself or, for example, those contained in state standards. In some cases, relevant indicators are formed based on consumer expectations. What is meant by the term “quality” among Russian experts? What could be its main features?
Quality definition
Many researchers associate the concept of quality with a combination of certain properties, appearance, conditions of use of a product that characterize a product from the point of view of its purpose. Corresponding features also form the requirements that the product must comply with, both at the level of project documents and in the aspect of the actual consumer properties of already manufactured goods.
Quality and market
In a market economy, the concept of quality is largely correlated with the laws of demand. That is, the relevant characteristics of the goods are determined primarily by the consumer. If the manufacturer meets these expectations, then its products will be bought. At the same time, price is of great importance in this communication formula. The fact is that the high quality of the goods, as a rule, involves significant costs for the manufacturer to develop the desired product concept, to purchase the necessary materials, to exercise control over the release and acceptance of the product. Therefore, the high quality of the product most often means its subsequent sale in the corresponding price segment. The question is whether the buyer will be ready to purchase the product, albeit of high quality, at a set price.
Quality indicators
The concept of quality involves determining the characteristics of a product based on certain indicators. Among those:
- criteria for the purpose of the product;
- indicators of product reliability;
- product characteristics in terms of standardization;
- ergonomic criteria;
- aesthetic indicators;
- product characteristics regarding compliance with patent laws and legal acts in the field of intellectual property protection;
- environmental criteria ;
- characteristics in terms of product safety.
Let us now examine how the evaluation of the quality of goods can be carried out.
Quality assessment: objective methods
It can be produced on the basis of a wide range of methods. Consider the most popular.
So, there are objective methods for determining quality.
Among those is the measuring one. It involves the identification of numerical indicators of quality. It is based on information that is generated by using technical tools and other measuring instruments (for example, chemical reagents). The involvement of resources is carried out taking into account the established methodology for assessing quality. Through measurement, you can identify the external characteristics of the product or some of its operational properties. The concept of product quality is associated with the need for accuracy in determining the relevant parameters. The measuring method in this sense may be indispensable. Accuracy is its main advantage.
There is a registration method by which the quality of a product can be evaluated. It is based on the observation and subsequent calculation of the number of certain events, precedents, manufactured goods, or the costs associated with their production. Using the registration method, you can determine, for example, the number of incorrect responses when starting the mechanisms that are present in the product. Also, when using the tool in question, it is possible to classify products into certain types, for example, first-class and second-class ones.
In some cases, the calculation method may be involved. The concept of quality can be associated, as we noted above, not only with the finished product, but also with the stages of its design development. The calculation method, thus, can be used to model the quality of the finished product at the time of its design. When using the appropriate tools, the initial data can be information resources (for example, technical characteristics of individual parts or mechanisms that are present in the product structure) or materials that have specific properties (which, in turn, can be a significant factor in the formation of the product’s operational properties).
Heuristic methods
The concept of product quality can also be associated with the use of heuristic methods in determining the appropriate characteristics of the product.
Among those are organoleptic. It involves determining the quality of the goods, in which the main role is played by the human senses. When using the organoleptic method, the smell, taste of the product, some of its physical properties are investigated. If necessary, the person studying the product can use auxiliary equipment: microscopes, gas analyzers, microphones, etc.
Among other heuristic methods is expert. The concept of product quality also involves its regular use to determine certain characteristics of the product. The main role in using the appropriate method is played by experts - people with specialized education or the necessary experience in determining the required product parameters. The opinion of these specialists can play a decisive role, and can perform an auxiliary function. In some cases, the assessment of experts is crucial when comparing the results obtained using other heuristic or objective methods of researching the quality of the goods.
Heuristic methods are also considered sociological, despite the fact that in many ways it is similar to those that are classified as objective. So, the results of opinion polls, in fact, are recorded through registration approaches. However, the interpretation of the results meets heuristic criteria.
The concept of the quality system of goods in an enterprise most often involves the involvement of several methods in question, as well as others that are common in research communities. It all depends on the specifics of a particular product and the characteristics of the conditions for its production at the enterprise.
Quality criteria
The definition of “quality”, as well as some of its possible indicators, we investigated. Let us now examine the key varieties of criteria within which the corresponding characteristics of products can be determined. The concept of the level of quality involves the study of the characteristics of the goods that belong to several key categories.
So, there are general criteria. These may include, for example, the dimensions of the product, its volume, grade, material of manufacture. The considered criteria are generalizing, since the corresponding parameters can be exactly the same for a group of products. Despite the fact that each of them can be characterized by the specificity of the internal structure.
There are complex criteria. They suggest that several characteristics of the product that are interconnected will be taken into account at once. This may be, for example, the ability of the product to function through several power sources, for example, from a wall outlet and from a battery. Evaluation of the quality of the goods can be made, on the one hand, based on the possible number of hours of its battery life, as well as on the speed of charging the batteries.
There are, in turn, individual quality criteria for goods. They can be classified into those that characterize the product in terms of reliability, level of manufacturability, ease of use, standardization, or, for example, economic efficiency. As a rule, these criteria are sufficiently isolated. Although, of course, some of them can be considered in a single context.
For example, a high-tech product in many cases involves the comfort of using it. But this is not always the case, since technological effectiveness can be understood not only as a way to control the product, but also materials for its manufacture. It may well turn out that it is more convenient to operate a product of less quality from the point of view of the raw materials used in the production of raw materials than that made of high-tech materials.
Quality Management System at the enterprise
The concept and quality indicators in modern enterprises, as a rule, take the form of a system. That is, the requirements for certain characteristics of goods are stable in nature, they are reproduced over time. As a rule, they are fixed in standards and norms. The systematic nature of quality control at enterprises ensures the constancy of the release of goods that meet the required consumer properties. The presence of uniform norms and standards allows to increase the economic efficiency of production. Standardization can also be carried out at the level of legal regulation. Corresponding criteria, therefore, become mandatory not only for a particular enterprise, but also for a single industry or the economy of the state as a whole.
The concept of product quality management involves multistage control of the release of goods for compliance with standards and norms, which are approved by the state, industry or local sources of law. The study of the relevant characteristics of the product can be carried out both at the stage of its development (as we said above), and in the process of its production or at acceptance. The subjects of product quality control can be both internal corporate structures and government bodies.
Government and business priorities
At the very beginning of the article, we noted that the quality of goods produced by enterprises in a market economy is largely correlated with the laws of demand. On the one hand, consumers can form a certain set of criteria that, in accordance with their expectations, the products produced by a particular brand must meet, on the other hand, the client expects the goods at an affordable price. In this regard, the need for standardization of business processes, as well as in ensuring quality control of manufactured products, appears in commercial enterprises for obvious reasons. If the company does not carry out the necessary standardization and monitoring of production, then it will simply be uncompetitive.
But what could be the state’s interest in standardizing the quality of goods manufactured by commercial enterprises? There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, standardization of goods for the state is a social necessity. The fact is that the consumer, expecting the required level of quality of certain products, conveys his opinion to the manufacturer indirectly, through market mechanisms of demand. The state, in turn, promotes communication between the consumer and the supplier at the level of subject information messages in the form of laws that set standards. Compliance with them will help the business to market the products that people need so much.
Secondly, the state in most cases is a subject of international relations. Its task is to ensure the competitiveness of the national economy. The introduction of standards at various production levels may well contribute to this. The fact is that individual enterprises far from always have the ability to access the necessary criteria for the competitiveness of business processes. In turn, specialists developing state standards, as a rule, know the essence of the necessary requirements perfectly.
Thirdly, standardization is important for the state in terms of ensuring the sustainability of sectors of the economic system, especially industry. If each enterprise will produce goods according to its own standards, then there can be much fewer buyers of such products than if a company adhered to state standards in production: the parameters of the respective products may simply not be compatible with those that the consumer needs. Norms prescribed in laws form, as a rule, uniform criteria for product compatibility for the entire industry or even the market as a whole. Such unification facilitates the communication of producers of goods and their consumers, and, as a result, ensures the stability of the country's economic system as a whole.
Service quality
So, we have studied the basic concepts of quality characteristic of the manufacturing sector. But there are a large number of other activities of modern man, in relation to which the term in question is applicable.
So, if we talk about business, there is the concept of quality of services. Their provision is very significantly different from the supply of goods, despite this, the criteria for evaluating the relevant characteristics can largely coincide. As well as methods.
Services, unlike goods, are difficult to characterize by external signs. The fact is that the object of their provision in most cases perceives the result of the activities of the service provider very individually. Standardization of services is quite a framework. And in this sense, the possible deviation of the enterprise from the desired standards may already be a factor in increasing competitiveness. A hairdresser, having offered the client a creative haircut, which was previously not known in the salons, can dramatically increase its popularity among consumers.
Regarding the service sector, quality factors, as is the case with the production of goods, are largely determined by the laws of demand. However, the service provider most often determines the specific needs of the client by experience individually, and not on the basis of average preferences based on the wishes declared by individual clients, or norms fixed at the level of state standards. The service provider in many cases has greater freedom in pricing, which is limited, as a rule, only by the level of competition in a particular market segment, or, if the segment’s capacity is small, by the level of demand, which depends on solvency and other social characteristics of the target audience of consumers.
The social dimension of quality
There is the term "quality of life." Its concept is very ambiguously interpreted by researchers. Some experts believe that it directly correlates with a person’s income level. Other researchers believe that the “quality of life” is a more environmental concept, related not only to the economy, but to the environment. Some experts consider the term in terms of the excellence of social institutions. So, the concept of the quality of education, the level of development of medicine, laws adopted in the state, can be directly related to the category in question.
There are psychological interpretations of the term in question. So, there is the concept of “personality quality”. Their interpretation in some cases can be completely subjective. Personal qualities are an evaluation category. The same psychological characteristics can be interpreted by different people in a different way, based on a personal vision of their usefulness and significance for a particular subject of society.