What is Quality?

1. September 20, 1999 What is Quality? Anthony Marchese Mechanical Engineering Rowan University Henry M. Rowan Hall 201 Mullica Hill Rd. Glassboro, NJ 08028 Sophomore Engineering Clinic I

2. ObjectivesWhat is Quality? • After this presentation you will be able to: • Generate a list of customer attributes associated with a “quality” consumer product. • Construct a House of Quality to determine how customer attributes map into a set of specific engineering characteristics. • Develop a set of engineering specifications for a “quality” consumer product.

3. What is Quality?Sophomore Engineering Clinic I

4. What is Quality?Sophomore Engineering Clinic I “Quality. You know what it is, yet you don't know what it is.  ...some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality.  But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, there's nothing to talk about.  But if you can't say what quality is...how do you know that it even exists?  ...but for all practical purposes it really does exist.  Why else would people pay fortunes for some things and throw others in the trash pile?  Obviously some things are better than others...but what's the "betterness"? ...What the [heck] is quality?  What is it?” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig, 1974

5. What is Quality?Sophomore Engineering Clinic I

6. What is Quality?Sophomore Engineering Clinic I “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” In terms of quality, we can restate this as follows: “Quality is in the eye of the customer”. Customer Attributes (CA’s) What are the physical attributes that a customer might associate with a “quality” product? Customer Attributes are: vague subjective vary with individual based on personal values

7. Customer AttributesWhat is Quality? You are the customer…for the following products, generate a list of customer attributes that you associate with a quality product: • portable mp3 player • compressor drive shaft • Duke Nukem 3D Software • guitar effects pedal • electronic calipers • scotch tape dispenser • Coca-Cola bottle • hole puncher • portable flashlight • turbine blade • ball bearing • soccer ball

8. Customer Attributes Portable mp3 Player Customer Attributes Looks cool Looks high tech Display is easy to read Holds a lot of music Easy to use Buttons feel good to push Has lots of features Sounds good Easy to download files from the web Light weight Portable Clips on to belt Music doesn’t skip Battery lasts long Feels good to hold Doesn’t break when I drop it

9. Customer Attributes Rank them on a scale of 1-10 in importance Customer Attributes Looks cool - 8 - Looks high tech - 6 - Display is easy to read - 6 - Holds a lot of music - 8 - Easy to use - 7- Buttons feel good to push - 5 - Has lots of features - 6 - Sounds good - 10 - Easy to download files from the web - 6 - Light weight - 7- Portable - 8 - Clips on to belt - 7 - Music doesn’t skip - 7 - Battery lasts long - 8 - Feels good to hold - 4 - Doesn’t break when I drop it - 7-

10. Engineering CharacteristicsWhat is Quality? Engineering Characteristics(EC’s) What are the engineering characteristics responsible for creating the customer attributes associated with a “quality” product. Engineering Characteristics are: specific technical can either positively affect or negatively affect a CA trade-off against one-another

11. Engineering Characteristics Portable mp3 Player Engineering Characteristics weight size cost impact resistance compression algorithm power consumption component reliability circuit reliability audio frequency response random access sampling rate

12. CA’s vs. EC’s How are they related?