"Who cares about Quality?"

"Who cares about Quality?" is a common sentiment expressed by many. It can be from TQM promoters or campaigners, out of frustration. It can be from the Management targeting at their staff, feeling helpless and annoyed, or from the staff about other departmental staff / management. Many time, it is from the customers against the suppliers.

But conceptually "Quality" is something good, beautiful, satisfying etc. It is illogical that nobody cares about "it". What then contributes towards the apathy?

To analyse the situation, ISO 8402 definition of Quality is borrowed, i.e. "The Totality of Characteristic of an Entity that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs".

There are three important elements in this definition, i.e. "Total Characteristics" "Ability" "Needs" with respect to an entity. The entity can be a person, a department, a company, an organisation etc. Very often it is the failure to understand these three elements that lead to frustration. Whether the frustrated target is a person, or a group of persons that make up a larger entity, the following analysis applies.

The most taken for granted is the "Needs", which include "Customer Requirements" "Mission" "Purpose" "Direction" "Aspiration". For example, the employee needs summarised as "they only want more salary, promotion", is a new theory to prove Maslow wrong. It implies that human being does not have other needes, other than the basic needs in term of food, shelter and pleasure. Likewise, a Departmental need of a large organisation is often confused with "empire building". Such confusion, or perception as responding to larger market scenario, is somehow not aligned and integrated into the overall business startegies in winning more market shares.

Likewise, in the case of a Business need, as the bottom line theory goes, it is defined as "to make money, more money". This is assuming a Business entity is a perpetual money making machine, not an organism that have other needs that requires different business strategies.

With such simplistic perception of "Needs", the actual "process mapping" and "process control" of the "needs" mechanisms is often lop-sided, vague, or non-existence.

Assuming the "Needs" are well defined, with good Statistical Process Control, we have to address the other two elements, " "Total Characteristics" and "Ability" of an individual or group of people that makes up the entity. "Total Characteristics" can include "personal attributes, organisation method, structure, policy, system, etc." and "Ability can include "Training, Knowledge, Information, Communication" etc.

These three elements require quality planning, system thinking, business strategies, outcome design and effective mechanisms for successful implementation. Depending on the size and sphere of influence of the entity concerned, the varying degree of the above mentioned input and effort has to be considered.

Not until all the above three elements are adequately and appropriately addressed with statistical evidence to ensure good process control, apathy towards quality will prevail.

End.