Eight dimensions of product quality management can be used at the strategic level to analyze quality characteristics. This concept is defined by David A. Garvin, formerly C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (died 30 April 2017). Several dimensions reinforce each other, while others do not - improvement in one possible at the expense of others. Understanding the customer's desired trade-offs among these dimensions can help build a competitive advantage.
The eight dimensions of Garvin can be summarized as follows:
- Performance : Performance refers to the main operating characteristics of a product. This quality dimension involves measurable attributes; brands can usually be ranked objectively on individual performance aspects.
- Features : Features are additional characteristics that increase the attractiveness of the product or service to the user.
- Reliability : Reliability is the possibility that a product will not fail within a certain timeframe. This is a key element for users who need the product to function without fail.
- Conformity : Compliance is the precision with which the product or service meets the specified standards.
- Endurance : Durability measures the length of life of the product. When the product can be repaired, estimate durability is more complicated. The item will be used until it is no longer economical to operate it. This occurs when the rate of improvement and associated costs increase significantly.
- Serviceability : Serviceability is the speed at which a product can be used when it is damaged, as well as the competence and behavior of service personnel.
- Aesthetics : Aesthetics are subjective dimensions that indicate the type of response a user has for a product. It represents individual personal preferences.
- Perceived Quality : Perceived Quality is a quality that is associated with goods or services based on indirect measures.
Video Eight dimensions of quality
Performance
Performance refers to the main operating characteristics of a product. This quality dimension involves measurable attributes, so brands can usually be ranked objectively on individual performance aspects. However, overall performance ratings are more difficult to develop, especially when they involve benefits that are not every customer's need. Performance is often a source of contention between customers and suppliers, especially when items are not adequately defined in the specification. The performance of a product often affects the profitability or reputation of the end user. Thus, many contracts or specifications include damage related to inadequate performance. The question of whether performance difference is a difference in quality can depend on deep preferences - but preferences based on functional requirements, not appetites.
Some performance standards are based on subjective preferences, but preferences are universal so they have objective standard of force.
Maps Eight dimensions of quality
Features
Features are additional characteristics that enhance the attractiveness of the product or service to the user.
Similar thinking can be applied to a feature, a second quality dimension that is often a secondary aspect of performance. Features are "bells and whistles" of products and services, characteristics that complement their basic functions. Examples include free drinks on airplanes, permanent press cycles in washing machines, and automatic tuners on color television sets. Lines separating the main performance characteristics from secondary features are often difficult to describe.
Reliability
Reliability is the possibility that a product will not fail within a certain timeframe. This is a key element for users who need a product to work without fail.
This dimension reflects the possibility of a product not working or failing within a certain timeframe. Among the most common measures of reliability are the average time for first failure, average time between failures, and failure rate per unit time. Because these measures require products to be used for a certain period of time, they are more relevant to durable goods than products and services consumed directly.
Reliability usually becomes more important for the consumer because time stops and maintenance becomes more expensive. Farmers, for example, are very sensitive to time stops during the short harvest season. Reliable equipment can mean the difference between a good year and a damaged plant. But consumers in other markets are also more sensitive to product reliability. Computers and copiers are of course comparable in this respect.
Reliability may be closely related to performance. For example, product specifications may specify parameters for time-ups, or acceptable failure rates.
Reliability is a major contributor to the brand or company image, and is considered a fundamental dimension of quality by most end users. For example, recent market research shows that, especially for women, reliability has become the most desired attribute of automobiles.
Conformity
The suitability dimension describes the extent to which product design and operating characteristics meet established standards. This dimension is most indebted to the traditional approach to quality pioneered by such experts as Juran.
All products and services involve specifications of several types. When the product is developed, this specification is defined and the target set, for example the material used or the product dimension. Not only the target but also the tolerance (the range of deviations allowed from the target) is defined. One problem with this approach is that there is little interest in whether the specification has been met exactly as long as the tolerance limit is met.
On the one hand, this could lead to the so-called "pile tolerance". When two or more sections need to fit together, their tolerance measure often determines how well they will fit. If one part falls on the lower limit of the specification and the matching part on the upper limit, it may not fit tight. These links tend to be used faster than those made from the more precise centered dimension.
This problem can be solved by taking different approaches to measure quality. Instead of measuring simple conformance to specifications, the extent to which parts or products are different from the ideal targets are measured. Using this approach, process 1 (see figure) is better even though some items are beyond the specification limit. The traditional approach will love process 2 as it generates more goods within the specification limit. It shows that the problem of "pile tolerance" is worse when the dimensions of the part are farther away from the target than when they are clustered around it, even if some parts fall outside of tolerance. This approach requires a fresh outlook on the general process quality factor of 'disability level', to account for the fact that two parts may each pass a 'tolerance test' separately but can not be used when efforts are made to merge them together.
In the service business, the size of conformity usually focuses on accuracy and timeliness and includes the number of processing errors, unexpected delays and other frequent errors.
Endurance
Durability measures the longevity of a product. When the product can be repaired, estimate durability is more complicated. The item will be used until it is no longer economical to operate it. This occurs when the rate of improvement and associated costs increase significantly. Technically, endurance can be defined as the amount of usage gained from a product before it gets worse. After so many hours of use, the lightbulb filament is lit and the bulb must be replaced. Improvements are not possible. Economists call such products "one-hoss shays" (Oliver Wendel Holmes poem).
In other cases, consumers should consider the expected costs, both in dollars and personal inconvenience, future improvements to investment and operating costs of newer and more reliable models. Resilience, then, can be defined as the amount of usage obtained from a product before it is damaged and replacement is preferred for continued improvement.
This approach to endurance has two important implications. First, it shows that durability and reliability are closely related. Products that often fail are likely to be removed earlier than the more reliable ones; the cost of repairs will be higher and the purchase of a competitive brand will look much more desirable. Secondly, this approach implies that the resilience number must be interpreted with caution. Improvements in product life may not be a result of technical improvements or use of longer-lived materials. On the contrary, the underlying economic environment may have changed.
Service Ability
Serviceability involves the convenience of consumers getting repair services (eg access to service centers and/or self-service convenience), responsive service personnel (eg ease of appointment, availability of repair personnel to listen to customers), and service reliability (eg: correctly the first time). Competence and ease of improvement is the speed at which a product can be used when it is damaged, as well as the competence and behavior of service personnel.
Consumers not only care about striking products but also about the time before service is restored, the timeliness with which service placements are stored, the nature of relationships with service personnel, and the frequency of call or repair services fail to correct the problem. In cases where problems are not resolved immediately and complaints are filed, corporate complaint handling procedures also tend to affect the customer's final evaluation of product and service quality.
Some of these variables reflect different personal standards of acceptable service, while others can be measured objectively. The customer may remain dissatisfied even after the repair is complete. How these complaints are handled is important to the company's reputation for quality and service. Finally, profitability will also be affected. Companies differ widely in their approach to complaint handling and in importance they are attached to this service element. Some do their best to resolve complaints; others use legal gimmicks, silent treatment and similar ways to refuse unsatisfied customers.
For example, recently, General Electric, Procter & amp; Gamble and other companies have sought to precede consumer dissatisfaction by installing a toll-free line to their customer relations department.
Important attributes for serviceability dimensions are service warranty, parts warranty, spare parts availability, distance to dealer service center, proximity to dealer parts service center, proximity to individual parts service center, service waiting duration, preventative maintenance schedule, employee Listen customer service, repair information, polite service center, correct first time, service time relative to other dealers, warranty claims are handled without argument, average/year repair cost, extended warranty, underestimation of service fee and loan car provision.
Aesthetics or Style
The aesthetic nature of a product contributes to the corporate or brand identity. Damage or defects in products that reduce their aesthetic properties, even those that do not diminish or alter other quality dimensions, often lead to rejection.
Aesthetics refers to how the product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells. This is clearly a matter of personal assessment and reflection of individual preferences. Nevertheless, there seems to be some pattern in the ranking of consumer products based on taste.
A recent study of quality in 33 food categories, for example, found that high quality is most often associated with attributes such as "rich and full of flavor, natural taste, fresh taste, good aroma, visible taste". Aesthetics also refers to the "outside" nuances of the product.
The aesthetic dimension differs from the subjective criterion associated with "performance" in a less than universal aesthetic choice. Not everyone likes a sense of "rich and full" or even agree on what that means. The company must therefore be looking for a niche. In this quality dimension, it is impossible to please everyone.
Quality in Japanese culture
In Japanese culture, there are two types of qualities: atarimae hinshitsu and miryokuteki hinshitsu .
- atarimae hinshitsu - The idea that everything will work as it should (eg pen will write). The actual functional requirements. For example, the walls or floors of the house have functional parts in the house as a product; when the function is met, the quality requirements of "atarimae" are met.
- miryokuteki hinshitsu (The idea that everything should have a different aesthetic quality than "atarimae hinshitsu" (eg pens will write in a way that is fun for writers, and leave ink which is pleasing to the reader). Examples of floors and walls can be expanded to include color, texture, sparkle, paint, etc., which are aspects of "miryokuteki". These aspects consist of a very important part of quality, and add value to the product.
In the design of goods or services, atarimae hinshitsu and miryokuteki hinshitsu together ensure that the work will work as per the customer's expectations and also desirable to have.
Perceived Quality
Perception is not always real.
Consumers do not always have complete information about product or service attributes; indirect measures may be their only basis for comparing brands.
The endurance of a product, for example, can rarely be observed directly; it should normally be inferred from the various tangible and intangible aspects of the product. In such circumstances, images, advertisements, and brand names â € "opinions about quality rather than reality itself â €" can be important. For this reason, the two Honda - who built cars in Marysville, Ohio - and Sony - who built color television in San Diego - were reluctant to publish that their products were "made in America".
Reputation is the main thing of perceived quality. Its strength comes from an unspoken analogy: that the quality of the current product is similar to the quality of the product yesterday, or the quality of the goods in a new product line is similar to the quality of the product the company established.
See also
- Quality
- Quality management
- Quality control
- Eight Discussion Disciplines
- A3 troubleshooting
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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