Quality at any cost?

The definitions of quality that we can find in dozens everywhere appear too generic and not very operational.

https://www.qualitydigest.com/magazine/2001/nov/article/definition-quality.html https://dictionary.cambridge.org/it/dizionario/inglese/quality https://www.dictionary.com/browse/quality

When it comes to taking action to achieve quality, what should be done? What are the reference models? Does it make sense to talk about quality in limited edition productions? Was the space shuttle more qualitative and reliable, with 135 flights and 2 accidents, or the Concorde with 27 years in service and just one single accident? The question, according to common definitions, remains unanswered. Does being better just mean having more performance?

Quality and specifications

I like to think that quality can be defined as the ability to keep characteristics unchanged during production (process quality) and/or over time (product quality), depending on the applicability. But with respect to what must these characteristics remain constant and away from, as much as possible? Obviously from the limits of unacceptability.

If you do not have clear the limits of non-acceptability (the famous specifications), the comparison between two situations in terms of quality is deceiving.

Value analysis

Quality is therefore not an absolute concept, but must be considered in a relative way, evaluating the characteristics to be met and the costs incurred to achieve it. For the same average performance, the more the range of acceptability decreases, the more the quality increases, and with it the cost of the product. This concept escapes several industrial sectors: just think of the leather goods industry, where some aesthetic irregularities are justified by the manual nature of the operation, in fact increasing the perception of quality and even justifying a price increase. Many have the perception that the selling price somehow reflects the quality of the product; unfortunately, this is not the case. Years ago, during one of the many conversations with an important Italian industrialist, founder of an important multinational, he told me how he had not been able to enter the German market for some time, despite building devices that were completely comparable in quality and by offering them at much more advantageous prices. Well, he revealed to me that it was enough to fictitiously increase the selling price to start expanding in Teutonic land: incredible but true. Today it would be no longer possible.

There is a tremendous work behind a component or product of excellent quality to make it "cost" less: this concept is valid for industrial environments, such as automotive (let's say "standard"), but not for example for the rich niche industries (luxury boats, hyper cars, watchmaking, high fashion etc. ) in which the price to pay is not in question in the face of the exclusivity of the purchase. In extreme cases, the specifications are dictated directly and exclusively by the final customer.

Quality and performance

We could therefore approach the meaning of quality in everyday life, if, referring to our financial availability, we were able to understand which product maximizes the desired performance. In light of this, are we sure that a "Pata Negra" is better than an alternative raw ham that costs 3 times less?... apart from everyone's tastes, we mean... Even in everyday life we should try, in our small way, to strive to analyze the value of what we are buying, trying to reward those companies that put on the market cheap products but with excellent performance: rewarding for companies that invest in quality, penalizing for those instead that "rest" on their famous brands, but that in reality overvalue their products, based on expensive advertising campaigns, often limiting improvements and innovation. In the food sector, for example, many examples can be found.

Quality over time

Quality depends on time: we need to ask ourselves how long a quality level is financially sustainable and technically maintainable, both in production and in use. Not going into a process control analysis and related costs, just think that a control card for variables, amongst input, management and data analysis, can easily cost several thousand euros a year. The burden of control is not even the greatest cost: in fact, quality is not achieved by eliminating the products that invade the area of unacceptability (rejects), but by designing them that to be produced by capable processes and equipment.

Can absolute quality, i.e., zero defects, be achieved indefinitely? : the answer is "no". Studying the laws of reliability, we understand how zero defects can only be a limit situation: even doing things right (TPM, Maintenance and Control Plans), the probability of failure can be made small at will, but never zero: this applies both to the means of production, and to the product during its useful life.

For example, what is the point of making a car component that lasts 50 years when the expected life (statistically) of that vehicle is 30 years? The wise choice of component specifications is crucial in order not to "waste" quality when it is not required: this creates value to the end customer. As a side effect, the tendency to seek the minimum quality to meet the criteria of acceptability (for cost reduction) often leads to episodes of recall from the market: here lies the difficulty in finding the fine line between convenience and quality not up to par.

Quality of service

Given that quality Q is the ratio between performance P and cost C, Q = P / C: enlightened managers and strategists manage to reduce all the costs related to a product, often acting a lot on the hidden costs. If, for example, we consider e-commerce, we are faced with companies that have well understood the concept. Some have so extremely exploited it, to become real empires of planetary proportions: and here the famous Amazon warriors could come to mind ... In addition to factories that operate according to correct and innovative industrial concepts, these companies work a lot in order to minimize those costs related to the time necessary for the customer to choose, the costs related to parts returns and the costs of home delivering. Needless to mention how often we are faced with shipping costs that are similar if not higher than those of the product itself: sometimes we are satisfied with an objective performance a little lower than our expectations if we do not have to spend time, money and patience to be able to enjoy the good. This is where the concept of quality is exalted. When they start delivering home electronically bought cars, we'll be very surprised.... what...? sorry... they have already started....

Quality and safety

Safety occupies a pretty special place when it comes to quality: an example above all could be represented by the avionics systems on board passenger aircrafts (alas, not in military ones). In the commercial aviation, in fact, the search for optimal performance is also sought through double or triple the cost: we speak of multiple redundancy. The quality of the on-board systems must always be at the top if compared to what the technology makes available at that time; many pieces of equipment guarantee the performance in case of failure through backup systems, but even in this case the "infinite" quality does not exist: even the best process or product cannot, sometimes, remedy the unpredictable, or the human factor .

Quality of people

The study of the root cause of quality problems, if carried out correctly using the 5 Why methodology, "always" points to human error. Usually, 4 up steps are enough to arrive at managerial errors: hasty decisions or made on incomplete databases, inability, failure to study the risks, or, even worse, lack of a decision. Even the most refined production, sales and service systems relies in the ability of managers to manage and guide them perfectly.

An example of how the competence and sense of responsibility of process conductors can at any time undermine the goodness of our beautiful systems is described in the article "Providing results under high pressure" Providing results under high pressure (fabio65bordi.wixsite.com)

... but this is another story...

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