How do you define quality?

Ask a man how he defines quality. He will come up with some interesting answers that come to his mind. Later, ask a woman how she defines quality. The most probable, she will give you different answers than the man. Still curious, go to another person. Your choice: man or woman, young or old, etc, then ask the person how he/she defines quality. Surprisingly the answers somehow would be different from the ones you had earlier.

How could this happen? Well, how people define quality depends on the role of they defining it. Most people have a difficult time defining quality, but they know it when they see it.

For example, although you probably have an opinion as to which manufacturer of a smart phone provides the highest quality, it would probably be difficult for you to define your quality standard in precise terms. Also, your friends may have different opinions regarding which smart phones are of highest quality.

The difficulty in defining quality exists regardless of product, and this is true for both manufacturing and service organizations. Think about how difficult it may be to define quality for products such as airline services, child day-care facilities, college classes, moreover a house to live. Further complicating the issue is that the meaning of quality has changed over time.

Today, there is no single universal definition of quality. Some people view quality as “performance to standards.” Others view it as “meeting the customer’s needs”or “satisfying the customer.” How about you? How do you define quality?