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Chapter 1 Summary

This chapter focuses on differing perspectives on quality. When you ask a few people to define quality, each of their responses will differ. Quality can be defined in many ways based on occupation, environment, experience, and an array of different factors. Although quality may have a broad definition, a man named David Garvin created a list of quality dimensions to minimize what quality can mean. Those dimensions are performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and perceived quality.

Performance can be defined, in a since of quality, as how well an object is able to be effective in a timely manner. For example, if I take interest to a lip balm at Target and the lip balm says that it makes lips smooth in seconds then when I put on the lip balm, I will expect for the lip balm to instantly make my lips soft. If the lip balm fails to make my lips soft in seconds and takes longer, then the performance of the lip balm is off which in turn means that the quality isnt as good as it had claimed to be.

Features also coincide with performance as it can be defined as all the components that make a product great, kind of like the behind the scenes. The book mentioned a great example of how electronics like tvs can have features like surround sound and 4k and all kinds of things like that that makes the quality better than other tvs. The features are what boosts the appeal of a product therefore making it better quality than other competitors. Also, when a product has features, the performance of that product needs to be taken account of too because not only are

you looking for good performance from the product itself, but you are also looking for good performance in the features that comes with the product.

Reliability refers to how a product can consistently do what it is supposed to do without fault. For example, I can get food from a fast-food restaurant and order the same thing every time I go. If I go to that restaurant 5 times and the food tastes the same, then it would be a reliable place for me to eat because I know that the food is going to taste the same and is as good as any other time I go. On the other hand, if I go and the food is suddenly different and taste gross then my trust would be broken with the restaurant, and I wouldnt view it as a reliable restaurant anymore. If a product is not reliable then the quality of the product is lowered.

Conformance is basically the logistics of a product. The measurements, dimensions, durability, and anything in that realm when it comes to making a product. I believe that conformance is what a lot of people do think of when they think about quality. They think about how durable a product is, is it easy to break, is it able to sustain itself in different conditions. When a product is all wonky and doesnt have good measurements, durability, and all the elements that make it a good product it can be recalled and of course makes it bad quality.

Durability, which I have just mentioned above, of course coincides with conformance. To reinstate what I mentioned, durability is how well a product is made to be able to not get damaged easily/messed up. When a product is good and durable, whether that is clothing or electronics or anything else, that means the product is made with good quality items to be able to last for a long time. Everyone who spends their money wants to have a product that is durable and that they can keep for a long time because that means that the product is worth their money/however much they spent for the item.

Serviceability refers to if a product is easily repaired. If the product is broken, it should be able to be fixed and able to repair easily without it being totally damaged. For example, if there is a laptop that I am buying and it drops or malfunctions in any way, I should be able to get the laptop repaired without any problems but if that is not the case and the laptop is declared a total loss because of something small then the product would be of bad quality and not durable enough to sustain any kind of minor damages.

Aesthetics has to do with the 5 senses a human has. This involves taste, feel, touch, sight, and smell. Everybody knows that if they are buying something, they want it to look nice and not dirty or gross. We seek for things that are good quality and look good/presentable. People want nice things and part of the appeal for the products is being able to catch a consumers eye and make that consumer consider the product to have more sales. Aesthetics is very important because even if a product may not be good on the inside, on the outside is what a lot of people will look for and makes them buy the product because they think it looks good. For me personally, I really value aesthetics and when something looks pretty, I gravitate towards that product and sometimes buy the product before I test anything else. Aesthetics is what makes sales and is a big part of quality.

Lastly, perceived quality is solely opinion based. What a customer defines as a quality product and how well a company/business listens to those customers and take into consideration what those customers are looking for. So as mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, everyone has their own opinion of what quality is and it can be defined in many ways. This is very important to businesses because of course a business wants to make a product that appeals to the consumer. It helps them make more money and makes their customers happy because they are taking account of what their customers want.

In conclusion, there are many factors that tie into quality. Quality can be defined in an array of different ways, but I think David Garvin broke it down in an amazing way of what most people think quality is. All those dimensions, when done right, makes a great product that more people will want to buy.