Quality Management | Part - B

Determinants of Quality

There are following five (5) Determinants of Quality Service:
1. Tangibles
2. Reliability
3. Responsiveness
4. Assurance
5. Empathy

1. Tangibles:

The physical assets an agency utilizes positions the agency against their competitors.

According to Business Dictionary: Having physical existence and/or form, or discernible through one or more senses.

2. Reliability:

A customer service business is only as good as the quality of service they provide.

Or, Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

3. Responsiveness:

Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. For example: How well is a telephone operator able to respond to a customer’s questions?

4. Assurance

Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. The amount of confidence a customer service company installs in the client.

5. Empathy:

Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.Customer service companies must work to understand their clients business and the goals of their contact.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) may be defined as managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer.

Simply, Commitment to quality throughout organization.

Principles of TQM:

* Customer-oriented
* Leadership
* Strategic planning
* Employee responsibility
* Continuous improvement
* Cooperation
* Statistical methods
* Training and education

Costs of Quality

Costs of Quality does not mean the use of expensive or very highly quality materials to manufacture a product. The term refers to the costs that are incurred to prevent, detect and remove defects from products.

Quality costs are categorized into four (4) main types. Theses are:

1. Appraisal Costs: Appraisal Costs are the costs associated with measuring, evaluating or auditing products or services to assure conformance to quality standards and performance requirements.

These include the costs of incoming and source inspection/test of purchased material; in process and final inspection/ test; product, process, or service audits; calibration of measuring and test equipment; and the costs of associated supplies and materials.

2. Prevention Costs: The costs of all activities specifically designed to prevent poor quality in products or services.

Example:
- improvement of manufacturing processes
- workers training
- quality engineering
- statistical process control

3. Internal Failure Costs: Internal failure costs are those costs that are incurred to remove defects from the products before shipping them to customers.

Example:
- Scrap
- Rework
- Re-inspection
- Re-testing
- Material review
- Downgrading

4. External Failure Costs: External failure costs occurring after delivery or shipment of the product, and during or after furnishing of a service, to the customer.

Example:
- processing customer complaints
- customer returns
- warranty claims
- product recalls

Please visit, to read: Quality Management | Part - A