QUALITY

The term has become something of a buzzword, including in advertising. And in doing that it has lost something of its right meaning to many.

For most of us the quality of a singing voice, or of social standing, does not apply. The consideration here is a product or service. And it is the excellence of that product or service that interests us.

"A quality product," or it is the "highest quality," and so on are heard. Such ad terms are meaningless for giving actual quality, yet they could lead you to a better product or service. What these do then mean is that you, the user or consumer, better check it out for your self, and make sure it is the best quality available.

Moreover there are quality levels for products and services. Understanding them can lead to high quality products and services for your money and efforts.

Let me provide a few with comments for you to study.

WARRANTIES

Producers, or manufacturers, make use of warranties to allow them to sell a lower quality product with the hope that most will not require any maintenance or repair. Some stores will just replace the item with another or refund your money, taking most of the warranty responsibility on them self.

When the store has two week, 30-day, or longer return policy, for items do not buy a warranty.

If a product is made to the highest quality available you should not need a warranty. It should perform as advertised.

Many smaller costs items never use the warranty by the consumer. Who would send a $5 item back to the manufacturer. It would simply cost too much. Lower cost items providing warranties is thus a joke on you the consumer.

Yet notice that government requires these warranties. It is another cost added into the product by the government.

Larger items such as a car, house computer, or other major appliance should have a warranty on them, even if you have to buy it. Usually I do not buy a warranty simply because I will put the item through its paces within the period already provided by the manufacturer or store. If it fails I return it to the store or dealer and get satisfaction. If it does not fail in that time period it may not fail before it has experienced reasonable wear.

I have a 03 Malibu that has required only two small items, and one was a recall, and the other was under GM warranty. So why buy a warranty.

QUALITY LEVELS

UNAVAILABLE QUALITY is quality that has not been defined or even dreamed. It is a quality that could be available one day.

IDEAL QUALITY is quality that is possible to have, but for products the user or consumer is not likely to see it. It costs more and that would disallow competing in the market place. Materials, production machines, and labor, and of course profits, all go into preventing us from receiving this level of quality.

SUPERIOR QUALITY is available for some products even in the same competing products. You may not hear of these companies because their advertising is by word of mouth, the best kind of advertising.

I remember that when I was Floor Manger for a theater during my high school year poor quality films received an abundance of advertising. It was necessary to sell the public on a poor film.

USUAL QUALITY is the quality level that the market will bear. It is what users and consumers will put up with on a repeat basis. We users and consumers should not put up with, but demand better quality. Here is where plastics, aluminum and magnesium come into play rather than steel or wood. Unfortunately the cost of steel and wood products has been pushed up by a rising costs of plastic, aluminum and magnesium products.

Even car manufacturers have reduced the thickness of steel in their products until one is afraid to lean on a hood or trunk. Even though they are using steel the quality level is down. Profit is the culprit.

SALVAGABLE QUALITY is quality obtained by reworking the product or component in a product. These are pieces kicked out because of quality but may be able to rework, but determined to be salvagable and thus go in that bin. In some case these pices may be very good after repair, but generally they should be rejected.

SCRAP QUALITY is pieces, components or whole units that are not salvageable. This is the scrap pile. If the units are steel they can be recycled for the material. The same is true for aluminum, and magnesium. Wood scrap might be made into another product smaller product or made into fiber for particle-boards, veneer, etc. Plastic maybe.

Now that you have some idea of quality levels for products, how about your performance at anything you do, including your job. Where would it fit on that scale? Is the level why you did not get a raise, a promotion? Could be. But realize that your performance is always salvageable, or can always be moved to a higher level.