Why Quality is Important and How It Applies in Diverse Business and Social Environments, Volume I

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This is about understanding—why and application—how.

The aim is to provide guidance and introduction to both.

The book is in two volumes, with the first ending with Chapter 12, Quality Management.

What Is Quality and What Does It Entail?

Consistency and Variation

Quality is the consistent achievement of the user’s expectations of a product or service. The achievement needs to be “The right thing, right first time, every time, in time.”¹ We begin by looking at manufacturing and service industry and we wrap up by looking at the professions.

Immediately we can see that variation is not going to sit happily with consistency and that we must consider risk, and its converse—opportunity, likelihood, and probability and understand ...