Quality is the most important factor that determines a product’s success and sustainability in the market. Both profitability and productivity of a company are affected by quality management of a product or service. It impacts all aspects of the company – its market image and reputation being the two key determinants. Customer satisfaction is directly related to quality control. Generally speaking, the primary ingredient that any company must invest in to lead the market and maintain position in the industry is its quality. Those companies that are leaders in the market have the edge only because of high quality standards.
Some components of quality management
Costs
Often companies resort to compromising on quality by cutting costs. This definitely backfires in a competitive market in the long run. Customers certainly want value for their money and hence it impacts on sales in the future, if they find that their expectations with respect to promises made are not matching. Further, inferior quality affects cost of production negatively. These arise in the form of complaints from customers, which have to be attended to and most importantly resolved to customers’ satisfaction. All these involve money. Therefore, even though it appears that companies are saving through cost cutting, in the long term if the quality is being compromised then it is an unwise decision by the leadership.
Conflict Resolution
Even though it may seem that the two are not connected to productivity of a company, conflicts within lead to lowering the quality of product and service standards. Conflict resolution thus is an important aspect of quality management and maintenance for any company. Conflicts may arise out of various reasons – different approaches, ideas, attitudes, work ethics and so on. The leadership has to be alert to these factors within the workplace and provide adequate support and take action as required to ensure the ultimate goal of the company which is managing the quality of professional practice at the workplace.
Productivity
There is a direct correlation between quality and productivity. Poor quality affects productivity negatively. Without quality assurance, much of work hours would be spend in rectifying and reworking on the defects of products and services which is a loss to the company in terms of man-hours and cost of production. To keep this in place the aim of every company should be to focus on managing quality in the workplace starting from its employees to those who take up leadership roles. It starts with the quality of human resources; at the same time material quality maintenance is of utmost priority.
Profitability
When quality is maintained, customers are happy. They tend to be loyal to that company that keeps to its promises. This further leads to higher profitability. Wastage is minimized with costs being reduced which would otherwise have been incurred through rectifying and reworking on poor quality of products. Thus the profit margin expands.
Customer Satisfaction
Every company is concerned about customer loyalty. Satisfied customers tend to buy from the same companies since they feel assured that they will get value for their money spent. These satisfied customers become advocates for the company – thus expanding business without the company having to always directly invest in marketing to bring in new clientele. On the other hand dissatisfied customers will move towards competitors, which in turn will impact market reputation and profitability.
Maintaining Quality
The aim of every company should be to build a team that works in collaboration with one another, enthusiastically, to pursue common goals and minimize workplace conflict. This is the mantra for success!
There is a significant investment in the initial stages to build a culture of trust and faith in the leadership of the company. This assures those who work in the company. There should be sense of self-worth and belonging in order to give off one’s best to the ideals of the company. These are important factors that enable long term goal realization both for the employee as well as the company.
Once the quality is achieved and market reputation built, customers do a lot of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising without realizing how much it impacts profits for the company. This bit comes free for the company – earns that extra mileage from its loyal customers.
