Quiality and Reliability Corner

Quality revolution: leading the innovation and competitive advantages

M.A Berawi
The combination of intelligence and knowledge is a key factor in the move to globalization.
Knowledge management involves the identification and analysis of available and required knowledge,
and the subsequent planning and control af actions to develop knowledge assets so as to fulfill the
organizational objective of profitability through higher quality levels as recognized by customers.
Five definitions and perspective on quality
1. Transcendent Quality is neither mind nor matter, but a third entity independent of the
two, even though quality cannot be defined, you know what it is (Pirsig, 1974)
2. Product based Quality is based on the presence or absence of a certain attribute
(Abbott, 1955)
3. Manufacturing based Quality is conformation to requirement (Crosby,1979;Ishikawa,
1985)
4. User based Quality means fitness for use (Juran, 1974; Deming, 1982)
5. Value based Quality means the degree of the excellence at an acceptable price and the
control of variability at an acceptable cost (Broh, 1982).
The main objective of any management activity is to improve the performance of a company or
business to meet strategic objectives. As customer control revenue the management of quality is the
means to influence the value for money comparison in the purchase decision. What is more, as
levels of global competition increase, companies must actively manage their external and internal
perceptions by engaging in three areas of activity:
1. Adjusting external perceptions to reflect innovativeness and creation.
2. Managing internal capabilities by the appropriate use of ICT and the media and the
companys knowledge and ability
3. Changing the realty, in terms of behaviors, actions, and symbols (supporting society and
environment culture)
Quality management in business is a system that deals with the procedures of obtaining quality levels
that perform intended functions, and to do so within the various human, social, and environmental
requirements and constraints. The success of a product can be evaluated by the degree to which it
meets or exceeds the customers requirements. The quality of a product or process is measured in
terms of its characteristics or properties that customers value.
As customers evaluate the worth of an offer the manufacturer must consider the following:

The ability to sell is dependent on the customers perceived worth; and

The customers perceived worth is a product of the amount of quality in a product in relation
to the price.

Given price is set by the marketplace, if we hold a view of perfect knowledge, then the task before the
manufacturer is to increase quality whilst holding price in predetermined relationship. Further it is the
aim of this paper to enable the value of rival offerings to be positioned in relation to new product
development.

Each propertys quality is also the result of various influential factors. And these influential factors
are affected by relationships to other moderating variables. Searching for advantage and direct our
new product development process if we can anticipate which aspects of design are more attractive to
customer-perceived worth can be explained through a mathematically based approach named Quality
Value Model.
a. Deterministic model, deterministic approach that will subsequently be changed into a
probabilistic one. Given some attributes are qualitative and others such as weight are in
different units needed to translate the attributes into a common format.
b. Probabilistic model.