“Quality management is a discipline for ensuring that outputs, benefits, and the processes by which they are delivered, meet stakeholder requirements and are fit for purpose” (APM Knowledge, 2016).
“Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level of excellence” (Investopedia, 2016).
As can be seen by these two definitions of Quality Management, in its simplistic form, is the management of the processes and activities to ensure and maintain the quality of a product or service.
Quality Management has four main components:
- Quality Planning;
- Quality Assurance;
- Quality Control; and
- Quality Improvement.
These components include procedures, tools and techniques that are used to ensure that the outputs and benefits are in line with the customer’s requirement.
Quality Planning – Quality Planning includes the preparation of a quality management plan. This plan should describe the processes and metrics that will be used and which should also be agreed with all the relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that their expectations for quality are correctly identified. The processes described in the quality management plan should conform to the processes, culture and values of the organisation.
Quality Assurance – Organisations need to assure themselves that defects and mistakes are avoided in the manufacturing process or the delivery of a service. Quality Assurance validates the consistent use of procedures and standards and ensures that staff have the correct knowledge and skills to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. Quality Assurance will help ensure consistent results.
Quality Control – This component consists of inspection, testing and measurement to identify problems or defects that need to be corrected.
Continual Improvement – In most situations, there is always room for improvement. Through continuous improvement, organisations can measure results to make recommendations for improvement.
There have been a number of initiatives that have been developed to increase the quality of products and/or services over the years. The early focus was on inspection, which included checking that products met with certain specifications.
However, there has been a shift from inspection to quality control, to quality assurance to total quality management.
In a competitive market, such as sporting goods, quality management should be a key part of the supply chain process. Trainers without soles after a few times of wearing them would not be a successful product for the brand! Of course, it stands to reason that products at the cheaper end of the scale would not have the same quality standards and expectations as those less competitively priced. That doesn’t mean customers understand or appreciate that sentiment. Depending on the product, quality management may be a more crucial part of the production process, especially if there are additional legislations linked to the production of the items.