ABSTRACT
This chapter presents definitions and measurements of quality and the following five approaches to implement quality in products and processes: (1) Total Quality Management (TQM), (2) ISO 9000 Series Standards for organizations, (3) Criteria for Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award (performance criteria to evaluate organizations based on their quality-related accomplishments), (4) Six-Sigma Improvement Methodology (using DMAIC, i.e., Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control approach), and (5) Design for Six-Sigma (DFSS) (using IDOV, i.e., Identify, Design, Optimize, and Verify approach). The above five approaches are complementary in their implementation in the sense that an organization seeking to improve quality can implement any one or more of the approaches. Quality is determined by the customers and various definitions of quality provided in the literature are covered in this chapter. Products must be designed to create quality and the systems approach must be implemented to incorporate and improve quality. The Kano model of quality relating customer satisfaction to product features related to (a) unspoken customer wants (must have), (b) satisfiers (give more of), and (c) delights (creates Wows) are also discussed in this chapter along with various objective and subjective measures and tools used in quality measurements and evaluations.
