Quality: «we will recognize it when they see it» - Once upon a time there was a factory
Background
Before the Industrial Revolution, products were made by hand. Quality was guaranteed by the knowledge of the craftsman, who had an overview of all the processes that were involved in the final product.
Industrialization and the increase in mass production have led to specialization within companies. Each of the people concentrates on their small section of the company and it is not possible to have a global vision of it. It became impossible to rely on the knowledge and ability of the employee to prevent defective products from going on the market. The inspection became necessary and initially this was carried out by the chief or foreman of each section. The inspection activities increased progressively with industrial development and it was necessary to relieve the foreman of some functions in which he was involved. Later a new working group, called Inspectors, was developed at the start of the First World War.This group is then separated into an independent organizational unit: the inspection department that started in the 1920s.
During the Second World War, mass production increased, but at the same time access to the labor force decreased. In order to cope with this, the inspection work had to be more efficient. Statistical quality control was then found to be an effective means for this purpose. In particular, the military authorities in the United States were interested in this type of procedure and instructed the suppliers of war materials with statistical methods. Later these methods reached a wide distribution and at the same time they were developed consecutively.
The complexity of the products increased and therefore the risk of defects in the functions of the products. There was then an incipient interest in the reliability of products, and during the 1950s the development of special methods to increase reliability began. Initially, interest was focused on electronic products for military purposes and space programs. The reliability technique is mainly used in product development and design work.
Commitment. Achieving success in terms of quality is a commitment that develops every day, excellence is only achieved through commitment, worth the redundancy, which involves giving more and more of the best to the customer
During the 1960s, talk about total quality control began. In order to be able to manufacture high-quality products at reasonable costs, it was found that concentrating on isolated functions was not enough, but required quality planned activities that covered all functions. So this functional crossover way of working was called total quality control. At the end of the sixties, a new concept emerged that was noticed, called quality assurance. However, there is no complete agreement regarding the meaning of this term.
During the 1970s, questions arose regarding the safety of products and the damage they caused, and attention was paid to these relevant aspects. This was the result of the rapid development of the legal responsibility of manufacturers, distributors, sellers, etc., to pay compensation when goods cause injury to persons or damage to property, the high compensations that apply to manufacturers have led to the principles of quality control being applied to a greater extent. Quality control has been found to be an effective means of safe product manufacturing on the job.
In recent years, starting in the mid-1970s, corporate executives and senior managers began to show interest in product quality. The reason for this growing interest was that it became obvious to many of them that quality meant a lot to the future of companies. The recognition of this was obtained through the increase in competitiveness and the high quality demands of the client. Furthermore, economic openness and globalization made quality a means and an end to reach and retain customers.
Definition
Speaking of quality, we can highlight its characteristics, these can be: A physical or chemical requirement, a dimension, a temperature, a pressure or any other requirement that is used to establish the nature of a product or service. Quality does not have a popular meaning of the best in the absolute sense, industrially it means, better within certain conditions of the consumer, since it is he who ultimately determines the class and quality of the product he wants.
Taking into account the above, the quality of a product can be defined as:
The result of a combination of engineering and manufacturing characteristics, determining the degree of satisfaction that the product provides to the consumer, during its use.
This definition leads us to think in terms as reliable, helpful and durable, terms that in reality are individual characteristics that together constitute the quality of the product. Establishing what we understand by quality requires a balance between these characteristics.
The term quality can be used with different meanings such as:
- Design quality: the conformity between what the customer needs or wants for a certain price and what the design function projects. Quality of agreement: degree of conformity between what is designed and what is produced. Quality in use: the degree to which the product complies with the function for which it was designed, when the consumer requires it. Quality in the Post - Sale service, that is, the degree to which the company pays attention to maintenance, service, claims, guarantees or guidance on use.
In general, both the first definition used and the following ones are implying responses to the consumer, therefore they act in different ways and intensity depending on the type of product being produced.
The customer is always right. The phrase hackneyed and reviewed by everyone "the customer is always right" is more important than ever if you really want to consolidate excellence in the organization.
There are various concepts about quality, Japanese, American trends, etc. The only certainty is that companies that strive to achieve high levels of quality are above those that do not. Today's market can be characterized by a phrase "the big fish eats the little fish" and the big fish is the one that provides its customers with the highest quality standards, not necessarily the big fish is a big company, the small ones And flexible companies of today are competing with large, rigid corporations that have not yet adapted.
