ABSTRACT
Merriam-Webster denes quality in several ways, including the following: (1) peculiar and essential character, (2) degree of excellence, (3) superiority in kind, (4) distinguishing attribute, and (5) acquired skill. These denitions range from describing products to describing people. Our focus will be mainly on describing products and services. We will dene quality by taking several approaches that are consistent with historical engineering themes. Though there may be other approaches that can be applied to dening quality, Garvin’s (1984) approach is generally accepted in engineering. The ve approaches to quality include global or transcendent, product-based, user-based, manufacturing-based, and value-based approaches.
