Who cares about quality?

You've certainly noticed that different people mean different things when using the same terms, such as quality, processes, goals, or strategy. In one of our recent workshops I asked 15 people how they define quality. I got more than 10 different answers in only five minutes.

Here is a list of three quality definitions from well-known sources:

1. "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements."
2. "Number of defects per million opportunities."
3. "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for."

Do you know the source of each definition? Click here to submit your guess as comment. The first of you with three correct answers wins a special discount on one of our products. We will publish the solution next Tuesday in our blog. Good luck!

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Comments

[James Cullinan]

Since I'm fond of throwing out untested ideas - simply to stimulate the flow of better ones, I would guess the following:

1. Richard Schonberger, who catalogued (but didn't create) the 'just in time' movement
2. Someone from the TQM school of thought, so perhaps John Oakland
3. Taiichi Ohno, whose 'revolution' at Toyota was focused on putting the customer first.

I would also say that the the great W. Edwards Deming (who is still a God in my eyes) was at the origin of 1 (fintess for use) and 3 (the customer is the most important point on the production line).

Now over to the others...

[Mirko Boettcher]

First of all I have to admit that I couldn't recognise all quotes on top of my head - but my little processor has helped.

1. International Standard Organisation - ISO 9000 Definition
2. Motorola: Part of the so called "Six Sigma" strategy
3. Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909 - 2005), who has been alreday subject to an article on this New Pace site end of last year.

I hope I have investigated the right sources - if not: I will have to improve the quality of my database...

[David Lindelöf]

Personally I subscribe to Weinberg's definition:

Quality is value to someone.