The Risk Professor Series

Sunday January 24, 2010

Achieving Quality Delivery in Products, services or projects

Quality connotes different things to different people. In fact, the issue of what constitutes quality can
be as diverse as life as itself. What one man considers to be of top quality might be absolute rubbish
to another. Working on projects such as residential buildings, it is common to have supervisors have
extensive arguments and disputes with craftsmen such as masons who claim the tasks have been
completed despite the visibility of obvious defects in finishing and quality. Even in football, definition
of quality can vary widely. This is interesting given the fact that it is the absolute measure of who
scores the higher number of goals that wins a match; there are many football coaches, managers and
even fans who will never accept their team’s performance in victory if not achieved with flowing and
beautiful soccer display. Arsenal, Manchester United (A team I dislike with passion though…because
of their logo and inscription), Barcelona, and Brazil are examples of teams whose supporters cannot
accept nor sacrifice skills and fluidity of soccer for score victory. For these teams and their fans,
minimum quality delivery is winning by playing beautiful football. Although I’m a huge fan of Jose
Maurinho, particularly when he started with Chelsea FC, I cannot say his teams play beautiful
football. You have the feeling though that his teams will win but not a function of the quality of
football. His current team, Inter Milan is following the same pattern. The type of football that
Barcelona currently plays is one major reason that Manchester United is seriously considering Pep
Guardola, Barcelona coach as potential successor to Sir Alex Ferguson. When Leventis United, many
years ago stormed the Nigerian League scene winning the League a number of times with many of
their victories ending as 1-0 score line, very few accepted their approach to the game which was
viewed as being ultra defensive. The diversity of views regarding what is acceptable quality has given
rise to the development of systems, standards and definitions for what constitutes quality in a number
of fields. Many organizations such as International Standards Organization (ISO), American
Petroleum Institute(API), Project Management Institute (PMI) have helped shape the way that
individuals and companies handle the issue of Quality Definition, Management and Control.
The Business Dictionary defines Quality in four broad areas namely: General, Manufacturing,
Objective, and Subjective. We’ll look at these definitions together with practical application and
tips.
GENERAL: Measure of excellence or state of being free from defects, deficiencies and significant
variations. ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as “the total of features and characteristics of a
product or service that bears its ability to satisfy rated or implied needs. To be able to detect whether
a product or service is free from defects, deficiencies or variations, the end-user, owner or manager
must first state in writing all measurable features of the product and their expected standard of
completion and finishing. This information must be clearly communicated to the contractor, labourer
or implementing party before work commences. The group or person executing the task must also
accept responsibility in writing for achieving the desired quality standards as part of the job
completion scope. It is these documents and agreements that make it easy to verify compliance with
minimum friction. It is common to hear contractors or craftsmen say that they have years of
experience in executing similar tasks. While that may be true, it is possible that they may not have
worked for people whose Quality Assurance standards are as high as yours.
MANUFACTURING: Strict and consistent adherence to measurable and verifiable standards to
achieve uniformity of output that satisfies specific customer or user requirements. The Quality value
of toothpaste is not in its colour or packaging. The real quality in addition to taste and external visual
appeal includes the ability to remove teeth stains, clear bad breath, prevent tooth decay, keep gums
healthy and leave the mouth fresh all day long. In other words, a toothpaste brand with a beautiful
pack, lovely gel colour, wonderful taste, nice smell but still fails to prevent tooth decay or leave the
mouth fresh will still be considered a poor quality product. Spending millions in advertising and
branding without correcting these flaws in quality will be simply foolish. The results will always
show in reduced sales or poor market penetration. What use is a cell phone whose battery life is less
than 1 hour in Nigeria? What use is a beautifully designed shoe that deteriorates sharply after being
worn a few times? What good is bottled water if it has taste? Who wants to buy a beautiful car that is
known to break down every month or requires frequent and expensive maintenance?

OBJECTIVE: Measurable and verifiable aspect of a thing or phenomenon, expressed in numbers or

quantities, such as lightness or heaviness, thickness or thinness, softness or hardness. Regulations
require concrete to achieve minimum strength using standard tests. Writing contract agreements that
require successful crushing tests before civil contractors are paid is one way to enforce compliance.
SUBJECTIVE: Attribute, characteristic, or property of a thing or phenomenon that can be observed
and interpreted, and may be approximated (Quantified) but cannot be measured, such as beauty, feel,
flavor, taste. A good towel should absorb water easily from the body. What good is a consultant or
customer relations person who lacks courtesy, is self centered or seen to be brash, insensitive or
shallow? Of course you cannot measure the quality of skills on display in a football match but the
oohs, aahs,…and type of sounds that erupt from fans when a match is going on say a lot about the
quality. Maradona, Ronaldinho, Pele, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, JJ Okocha, Zinedine Zidane, Segun
Odegbami, Beckam, Fabregas, Adokie Amasiemeka, Seidou Keita, Stoichov are some footballers
whose quality cannot be contested. Michael Jackson, R Kelly, Bebe and Cece Winans, Celine Dion,
TuFace Idibia, StylPlus, Buchi, Midnight Crew are just a few of the many musicians whose quality
cannot be denied.

Whatever you do, be sure that you understand what constitutes quality to the customer and commit to
go the extra mile to achieve it. The rewards will bring smiles to your face. And to your bank account
too.