QUALITY CONCEPTS

People say they want quality; however, their actions may not support this view for the following reasons:
· Many think that defect-free products and services are not practical or economical, and thus believe some level of defects is normal and acceptable. (This is called Acceptable Quality Level, or AQL.) Quality experts agree that AQL is not a suitable definition of quality. As long as management is willing to “accept” defective products, the entire quality program will be in jeopardy.
· Quality is frequently associated with cost, meaning that high quality is synonymous with high cost. (This is confusion between quality of design and quality of conformance.) Organizations may be reluctant to allocate resources for quality assurance, as they do not see an immediate payback.
· Quality by definition calls for requirements/specifications in enough detail so that the products produced can be quantitatively measured against those specifications. Few organizations are willing to expend the effort to produce requirements/specifications at the level of detail required for quantitative measurement.
· Many technical personnel believe that standards inhibit their creativity, and, thus do not strive for compliance to standards. However, for quality to happen there must be well-defined standards and procedures that are followed.