The quality of a product is the customer’s perception of it —it’s a mental fixation of the consumer that assumes compliance with said product and its capacity to meet its needs.
The quality indicators are the tools and systems that own a company to measure the performance of their products. Although historically they have been quantitative, little by little new models appear that consider other factors more qualitative, such as competitiveness or consumer satisfaction.
However, these models must be quantified in order to be measured and compared. To understand the indicators, you must first see how they are used.
In every organization, there must be a quality management system, which ensures the quality of the company’s product and is responsible for the administration of its controls.
How do you measure the quality of a product?
You know what I tell people whose product isn’t a great success? Test it again. Make changes. —Kevin Harrington
If we define the word quality in a generic way, it would be the group of characteristics that make an object satisfy a specific need.
In the business case, the idea that the customer has of the product is very important, depending on how you satisfied the customer’s need.
Therefore, it’s important to continuously monitor the products of the company, in order to minimize errors and provide the best product to customers.
The quality indicators serve to measure the different criteria that are considered appropriate, according to which process you want to evaluate.
For this, the following controls must be defined:
1. Plan Quality Control
The plan defined by the company to measure the quality must be detailed and aligned with the objectives of the company. Several elements must be defined in this plan:
- The processes and systems that must be measured to achieve products without errors.
- The characteristics that the product must have in order to guarantee its quality.
- The team of people who will measure and correctly check the product.
- How the data will be collected, to then be able to make changes and corrections.
- The necessary training for workers to carry out inspections.
- Tests to verify that the product is of quality and has no failures.
2. Verify the Product
Product verification can be done in three phases:
- Inspecting the material entry process.
- Inspecting the process during its development.
- Verifying the finished product.
Finding a product and verifying a product are two completely different phases. Learn how to successfully find a product by checking out my list here.
3. Improve Process Control
Finally, to achieve a successful evaluation it is necessary to apply a series of activities that will facilitate control:
1. Inventory preparation
Having an inventory per day will make the task of calculating many of the product indicators easier.
2. Design of a calibration plan
The calibration is used to compare the different qualities with a reference standard (or standard).
3. Make equipment maintenance plans
Having planned periods of review and maintenance of material resources and product will make a regular evaluation.
There are an infinite of indicators, the most common in most organizations are market coverage, product effectiveness, sales level, and customer satisfaction.
4. Market Coverage
The coverage is defined as the number of products available in relation to the total market demand.
- Product efficiency
This indicator measures whether the customer has covered his need with the product. For this, subsequent evaluations must be implemented and customer feedback should be obtained.
- Sales level
Sales are a mandatory indicator when measuring the quality of a product, so they are essential, as well as being easy to measure.
- Customer satisfaction
The best pros do their homework and discover background information about people. But regardless of how much homework you might do, eventually you have to analyze your customer’s needs. —Kevin Harrington
Here, you should measure how satisfied the customer has been after the purchase. That is, if you have fully met your expectations or if, on the contrary, you have been disappointed.
To measure it, as well as for effectiveness, it is essential to conduct customer surveys, in order to generate feedback from you and improve the process in question.
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