Quality Production and its Benefits

Quality Production

• Quality is defined by meeting customer expectations through well-designed, functional, aesthetically pleasing, and safe products.
• Businesses risk losing to competitors if they fail to meet quality expectations.
• Striving for products and services free from faults or defects is crucial.

Benefits of Quality Production

• Customer loyalty increases through recommendations and repeat purchases.
• A strong brand reputation for quality builds trust.
• Reduced costs is achieved by fewer returns and replacements.
• There are lower unit costs by minimizing waste and rejected outputs.
• Customer satisfaction increases with fewer complaints.
• The higher selling prices become possible.
• A competitive edge in the market improves.
• Compliance with government legislation is made easier, avoiding fines and penalties.

Defining Quality

• Quality is defined as the features of a product or service that satisfy customer wants.
• Good design focuses on attractive looks and style.
• Good functionality emphasizes the product's ability to perform its job well.
• Reliability is defined as minimal breakdowns or failures.
• Durability requires a product to last as long as it should.
• Value for money requires worthwhile expenditure.

Evaluating Good Quality

• Defect rate: A high rate indicates poor quality.
• Reliability: Measures how often a product malfunctions, affecting its lifespan.
• Customer satisfaction: Measured through research to determine satisfaction levels.
• Number of complaints: Tracks customer dissatisfaction.
• Customer loyalty: Measured by tracking repeat purchases.

Evaluating Poor Quality

• Frequent breakdowns and unexpected wear indicate poor quality.
• Failure to perform as promised negatively affects quality.
• Poor instructions make the product difficult or frustrating to use.
• Poor customer service responses reflect quality issues.

Costs of Poor Quality

• Losing customers due to poor quality requires costly promotional efforts to regain trust.
• Reworking or re-marketing products incurs additional costs.
• Replacements or refunds for faulty products drains finances.
• Wasted materials from unusable production runs up costs.

Quality Control

• Quality control involves checking quality at the end of production to ensure standards are met.

Objectives of Quality Control

• Meeting consumer needs is a key goal.
• Ensuring proper operation is equally important.
• Products must be cost effective to produce.
• Easy repairability is essential.
• Conformance to safety standards is a must.

Quality Control Methods

• Begins with input checks (raw materials) to ensure quality, type, and quantity.
• Inspection is done during work to ensure the output expectations are achieved.
• Completed output are checked to confirm it meets expectations.
• Some businesses use multiple checks to confirm suitability for marketing.

Advantages of Quality Control

• Faults are eliminated before the customer receives the service.
• Customer confidence in the product/service increases.
• Savings occur because fewer rejects are recorded.

Disadvantages of Quality Control

• Finding a fault can be difficult because it might not be known what created it.
• Costs increase if products have to be scrapped, reworked, or service repeated.
• Rejected products are costly because of manufacturing costs but an inability to sell the product.

Quality Assurance

• Quality assurance checks quality standards throughout the production process.
• Quality standards are set and applied throughout the business.
• Problems are stopped before they occur.
• Customer satisfaction achieves greater sales, increased added value, and increased profit
• System implementation includes product design, materials, delivery, and procedures.
• Customer feedback is considered during production.

Advantages of Quality Assurance

• Faults or errors are fixed before the customer receives the end product.
• There are fewer customer complaints if quality assurance is implemented
• Costs are reduced if products do not need reworking
• Worker motivation can improve as there is more ownership

Drawbacks of Quality Assurance

• Training employees and implementing quality control is expensive.
• It requires employees to abide by the standards implemented

Total Quality Management (TQM)

• Total Quality Management is a constant improvement of products by focusing on quality at each production stage.
• It ensures there are no defects and every employee ensures quality during the production stage.
• Total Quality Management focuses on customer satisfaction which includes the departments in the business.

Features of TQM

• Quality chains involves customer needs and expectations. An employee is both a customer and a supplier.
• Everyone's involvement involves teamwork and is organized so customer service and quality are accounted for.
• Quality audits involves data collected to monitor quality standards.
• Ensuring there are zero defects in the products manufactured.

Advantages of TQM

• It helps businesses to develop ways of tracking and measuring performance.
• Products do not have to be reworked as often.
• It helps the business to remove inefficiencies and waste.
• Focuses on meeting customer demands
• Helps improve every aspect of the production.

Disadvantages of TQM

• Focuses on processes which detract from the product
• Everyone must be committed
• Implementing and training is costly
• Bureaucracy can overwhelm the business.

Factors Necessitating Quality Control

• Increased competition makes it imperative to monitor and improve the quality.
• Government regulation to prevent faulty production impacts the improvement of quality.
• Faulty products are costly and damages relationships with customers.

Quality and Competitive Advantage

• Competitive advantage occurs when a firm outperforms competitors in growth, quality, market share, and profitability.
• Brands like Prada, Rolls Royce, and Rolex have succeeded in this.
• High quality helps create a Unique Selling Point
• USP gives a competitive advantage and higher profit margin.
• Product quality competitive advantage can be increased with greater efficiency, financial strength, superiority, strong customer base, research and development, advanced technology, and production competence.

Quality Standards

• Customers will look to standards like the British Standards Institution (BSI) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) if they want to make sure the product meets compliance measures.
• The BSI kite mark can carry certain standards that are consistently upheld in the business.
• Good customer service can retain new and repeat customers.
• An example of a compliance measure is ISO 9000 certification that allows companies to use an ISO number for literature.
• Certification basics include procedures for all key processes, monitoring to make sure quality products are made, regular reviews and continual improvement.