ABSTRACT
Wherever you go nowadays, it seems that you are always hearing the word ‘quality’, especially in relation to the requirements of ISO 9000, but even though these have become everyday words, they are often misused, misquoted and misunderstood. But why is this? Well, normally you will find that when most people talk about the quality of an object or a particular service, they are talking about its excellence, perfection and/or value. In reality, of course, they should be talking about how much it meets its designed purpose and comes up to the supplier’s original specifications. Referring to the quality of a single article is, of course, fairly simple. Problems occur, however, when one has to talk about complex systems. Then it can become very difficult indeed to assess a level of quality.
