BNET Business Dictionary

Business Definition for: Quality

  • all the features and characteristics of a product or service that affect its ability to meet stated or implied needs. Quality can be assessed in terms of conforming to specification, being fit for purpose, having zero defects, and producing customer satisfaction. Quality can be managed through total quality management, quality standards, and performance indicators.

Wiktionary Definition for: Quality

  • #''(uncountable)'' Level of excellence
  • Ex:''This school is well-known for having teachers of high '''quality'''.''
  • Ex:'''''Quality''' of life is usually determined by health, education, and income.''
  • #''(countable)'' A property or attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
  • Ex:''One of the '''qualities''' of pure iron is that it does not rust easily.''
  • Ex:''While being impulsive can be great for artists, it is not a desirable '''quality''' for engineers.''
  • Ex:''security Security, stability, and efficiency are good '''qualities''' of an operating system.''
  • #(''thermodynamics'') In a two-phase liquid-vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
  • #(''archaic'') high High social position.
  • Ex:''A peasant is not allowed to fall in love with a lady of '''quality'''.''
  • Ex:''membership Membership of this golf club is limited to those of '''quality''' and wealth.''
  • #The correspondence between a goal and its outcome -- between intent and result of action.
  • #Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.
  • Ex:''We only sell '''quality''' products.''
  • Ex:''That was a '''quality''' game by Jim Smith.''
  • Ex:''A '''quality''' system ensures products meet customer requirements.''

Additional Resources

Assuring Quality through Total Quality Management
This article is about current quality assurance practices which mainly emphasizes on the assessment or measurement of quality, assuming that this interest and attention will work some magic to make quality happen. Unforunately, quality doesn't just happen! Production processes have to be carefully planned, monitored, and managed to assure quality...
Tags: Total Quality Management, Westgard QC, TQM Framework, Quality, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, Business Operations, It Operations
White papers 2003-01-01
Delivering quality products: as major end users continue to make quality a top priority, industrial distributors are becoming vital links in the quality chain. (Quality, Focus on Products) (includes related article on how to rate a quality supplier)
Delivering quality products As major end users continue to make quality a top priority, industrial distributors are becoming vital links in the quality...
Tags: Ford Motor Co., quality, quality control
Research articles 1989-02-01
Measuring Quality's Return on Investment
Article discusses the measuring systems for checking quality system earning. It states how can quality be measured as in most organizations, the quality manager evaluates the effectiveness of the quality system. Sections 4.1 and 4.16 of ISO 9001:1994 mandate that quality records be used to demonstrate the effective operation of...
Tags: QCI International, ROI, Quality System, Roi/Tco, Iso standards, Process Improvement, Recruitment & Selection, Finance, Managerial Accounting, Quality, Business Operations, Human Resources, Workforce Management
White papers 2003-01-01
Verizon Tops for Call Quality, Report Says
A report from J.D. Power and Associates finds Verizon beat its competitors in overall call quality, while noting wireless usage patterns continue to evolve, as more communications than ever before are now made via text messages. As the wireless services industry continues to invest in network upgrades and more advanced...
Tags: wireless, J.D. Power and Associates
News items 2009-08-31
Assuring Quality through Total Quality Management 2
The articles talks about adopting a framework for Total Quality Management with reference to laboratories. The framework involves quality laboratory processes, quality control, quality assessment, quality improvement, quality planning, and quality goals.. There is a need to make quality planning quick and easy. The time to be saved is often...
Tags: Quality Control, Total Quality Management, Westgard QC, Quality, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, Business Operations, It Operations
White papers 2003-01-01
Total Quality Control
The term ‘Total Quality Control' includes three aspects viz. Design Quality Control, Product Quality Control, and Incoming Material Quality Control. The term ‘quality' is also categorized into three aspects viz. the product quality, the design quality, and conformance quality. The adoption of Total Quality Control techniques involves an elaborate process....
Tags: Quality Control, Quality, Business Operations
Presentations 2003-01-01
Flat-Lining Quality And The Implications For Health Reform
As Congress prepares for an historic floor debate over health care reform, those of us who have worked in the trenches to measure and improve the quality of care are watching with a mix of anticipation and concern. Reform has the potential to significantly improve the transparency and, ultimately, the...
Tags: plan, Health Care, quality
News items 2009-10-22
Quality Assurance
This article mainly focus upon Quality Assurance. It can be defined as, all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that an entity will fulfil requirements for quality. Both customers and managers have a need for quality assurance as they cannot oversee operations for themselves. One can...
Tags: QA, Transition Support
White papers 2003-01-01
What Makes Consumers Pay More For National Brands Than For Store Brands - Image Or Quality?
Private labels or store brands have become a major force to reckon with in grocery products. They account for over one-fifth of total volume sales in the United States and are growing faster than national brands. This article attempts to understand why consumers are willing to pay a higher price...
Tags: Brand, Branding, Marketing
White papers 2000-11-01
Starting fresh with Quality Beginnings™ : New breakfast concept latest initiative designed to breathe new life into Quality
Since 1995, Quality has been working to reinvent and reinvigorate the 60-year-old brand that started it all for Choice Hotels International. Now, near the end of its revitalization campaign, Quality is ready for a new beginning. Quality Beginnings is a revolutionary breakfast concept that will be rolled out in all...
Tags: Quality Inn
Research articles 2000-11-20
Quality in U. S. Manufacturing Industries: An Empirical Study
Quality management practices are determined in this research study from previous research, in-depth interviews, multiple case-study analysis, and an empirically based survey. Quality management practices that contribute to higher levels of quality are important for consumers and for business performance. Making matters more difficult is that quality management practices of...
Tags: Quality Management, Manufacturing, Quality Management Practice, Quality, Business Operations
White papers 2002-07-01
The Quality Policy
The ISO9001: 2000 standard identifies the techniques of policies and objectives primary tools of top management to direct the organization toward its quality goals for the products and processes of the company. The quality policy is a general statement made by top management that it intends to achieve quality because...
Tags: Core Business Solutions, Quality Policy, Quality, Productivity, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, Business Operations, It Operations
White papers 2002-01-01
Medical Devices – Harmonizing Quality Management Requirements
Broadly, ISO/TC 210, Quality management and corresponding general aspects for medical devices, defines its scope as: "Standardization of requirements and guidance in the field of quality management for medical devices." The field is extensive and rapidly evolving through technological advancements, and the demands run high for medical devices to aim...
Tags: Quality Management, Medical Device, Healthcare
White papers 2002-07-01
Quality Control
The ISO definition states that quality control is the operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfil requirements for quality. This definition could imply that any activity whether serving the improvement, control, management or assurance of quality could be a quality control activity. Quality control is a process for...
Tags: Quality Control, Transition Support, Quality, Business Operations
White papers 2003-01-01
Quality improvement
Quality Improvement is basically, the actions taken throughout the organization to increase the effectiveness of activities and processes to provide added benefits to both the organization and its customers. In simple terms, quality improvement is anything which causes a beneficial change in quality performance. All beneficial change results in improvement...
Tags: Quality Improvement, Improvement, Transition Support, Quality, Performance Management, Business Operations, Human Resources, Workforce Management
White papers 2003-01-01
Is The Baldrige Award Still About Quality?
When total quality management reached its zenith, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was launched. At the time, big industry was sold on the idea that quality can make a substantial difference, and the academic community was warming to it too. The American Society for Quality Control helped to administer...
Tags: Award, QCI International, Quality, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, Business Operations, It Operations
White papers 2003-01-01
Total Quality Management
Quality of a product or service is measured by its reliability among the target audience and its conformance to performance standards. Total Quality Management TQM is an approach towards maintaining quality of processes and systems in an organization. TQM calls for checking quality at every stage of product development rather...
Tags: Total Quality Management, Quality, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, Business Operations, It Operations
Presentations 2003-01-01
Deliver on client expectations by building a comprehensive quality plan
Poor quality management can lead to rework, customer dissatisfaction, higher costs, and missed deadlines. This template will help you avoid those problems by defining expectations and forging a solid plan to satisfy or exceed them. Many projects fall short of client expectations because the project manager didn't...
Tags: Expectation, Project Manager, Quality Plan, Quality, Business Operations
Tools & templates 2005-09-09
Context-Based Information Retrieval for Improved Information Quality in Decision-Making Processes
Information quality is an important aspect in decision-making processes. Since high quality information enables possessors to make effective and more efficient decisions, each decision maker should be able to access high quality information. Accordingly, the aims of this paper are twofold. This paper, suggests a definition of information quality tailored...
Tags: Information Quality, Decision-making, Information Retrieval, University Of Paderborn
White papers 2004-06-30
Quality Risk In Outsourcing: Noncontractible Product Quality And Private Quality Cost Information
This study shows that, if the factors that determine product quality (such as design, R&D, strategic procurement) are to be outsourced effectively, the OEM should take the Contract Manufacturers CM's incentives into account in designing the contract. The OEM should investigate at least three questions when outsourcing. Does the OEM...
Tags: OEM, Outsourcing, Quality, Research & Development, Tqm/Six Sigma/ISO 9000, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting
White papers 2005-05-24