Purpose of management of quality
Let us first discuss the importance of quality.
Quality is important as it helps organisations achieve their internal and external goals. External goals refer to customer satisfaction goals whereas internal goals refer to the improvement of processes by defect prevention and satisfying team expectation. The employees and the management of the organisation stand benefited in case of internal quality. Quality helps in establishing success in various forms. When the product or service is of good quality;
- Customers revisit your organisation to make repetitive purchase of products and services. Customer loyalty improves on account of repeat purchase. They also recommend your products or services to others.
- The brand name of the product becomes popular and this in turn influences other customers to buy these products or services. (Word-of- mouth advertising). This improves the market share.
- There is better value for money and the cost of the product is reasonable. The external partners of the product along with the client also stand benefited.
- There are very less chances of buyers returning the products or services.
- The Organisation can have good buyers as products and services are futuristic in their approach as they follow continuous improvement process.
However, the American Society for Quality defines "quality" as "a subjective term for which each person has his or her own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings:
- The characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
- A product or service free of deficiencies.
The main purpose of quality is to supply products or service that is suitable to the needs of the client and not incur any additional cost in the production due to defects. A defect in the quality always attracts a cost - that doubles when it is found by the customer leading to client dissatisfaction,etc. Cost for correction is obviously high and it is hence best to follow a controlled process with quality during production and prevent defects.
Project quality management makes sure that the stakeholders needs and expectations are met or exceeded by the undertaken project. The project team has to understand what quality means to both the sponsors and the beneficiaries of the project. Quality must be an aspect in the scope, scheduling and budgeting of the project. If a project donor is dissatisfied with the outcome of a project, the project team will have to satisfy donor?s needs by making adjustment to scope, schedule and budget. It is not enough to deliver the project on time and within budget, but should satisfy the stakeholder. A project that does not satisfy the stakeholder?s expectation but still satisfies the written requirements of the output will be evaluated as a poor project. The purpose of the management of quality hence has to necessarily satisfy the stakeholders.