Quality from Customer Needs to Customer Satisfaction

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2003), "Quality from Customer Needs to Customer Satisfaction", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 430-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780310502796

Bo Bergman, the SKF Chair in Quality Management, Chalmers University of University of Technology, Gothenburg, has industrial, research and teaching experience. Bengt Klefsjö, a winner of outstanding teaching awards from both the students and the university, is Professor of Quality Technology and Management at Luleä University of Technology.

This book on quality management comprises 23 chapters grouped into five fairly distinct and independent parts. Part five, comprising seven chapters, is the longest one (184 pages), and is titled “Leadership for quality”. The descriptions, explanations and discussions of topics are supported by 295 relevant exhibits, which improve the clarity. A detailed diagrammatic overview of the contents of the book linking concepts to chapters is provided at the outset

Part one is titled “Quality for success” and comprises three chapters. The concept of quality, customers, services, systems thinking and quality improvement are dealt with first in chapter 1. In chapter 2, the relationship between quality improvement and profitability, productivity, product development, and work environment are briefly dealt with. The topic of costs of poor quality gets a very short treatment. Readers interested in this topic have to refer to other books. The following chapter deals with the history of quality movement in which the works of some Gurus such as Deming and Juran are very briefly touched upon.

Part two is devoted to a brief discussion of methodologies that aid product planning, development, and design. The topics of integrated customer‐focused product development and models of service development are dealt with in chapter 4. In chapter 5, basics of quality function deployment are covered with an example from Volvo car project. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 respectively deal with reliability engineering (primarily for non‐repairable units), basic design of experiments, and Taguchi's work on robust design.

Part three is titled “Production for quality” and deals with methodologies and tools to prevent, improve, and control quality. In particular, the seven basic tools for quality improvement and statistical process control are very clearly explained with examples and exhibits. In chapter 12, they deal with process capability measures and, in chapter 13, turn their attention to the basics of supply quality.

The topic of part four, comprising three chapters, is “Quality as customer satisfaction”. The first two chapters are devoted respectively to issues involved in satisfying external and internal customers and the third deals with the basics of developing national and international indices of customer satisfaction for comparative purposes. In the first chapter of this part, various models such as the Kano's model on customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and delight, and the SERVQUAL (the gap model) approach for measuring customers” expectation and perception get a fair treatment.

Part five comprises seven chapters (chapters 17‐23) and deals with issues connected with “Leadership for quality”. In chapter 17, Deming's views on leadership and his 14 points and the concept of profound knowledge are introduced. Also covered are the concepts of single‐ and double‐loop learning. Topics covered in chapter 18 include the need for developing mission statements. Setting SMART goals and developing strategies, and the concepts of policy deployment balanced scorecards are dealt with in the next chapter. The following chapter deals with process management and innovation. ISO 9000‐2000 series quality systems and their derivatives are briefly introduced in chapter 20. In chapter 21, attention is turned to briefly explaining the various quality awards such as the Deming Prize, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the European Quality Award and other national awards that are derived from the former awards. In chapter 21, the seven management tools are briefly explained and in the final chapter the authors deal with improvement programs such as the suggestion systems and the Six Sigma program.

A 56‐page appendix comprises 18 tables. The first table is an eight‐page glossary of terms. There are 16 key statistical tables used in Six Sigma quality management. A sample customer (patient satisfaction) survey is also included. There is comprehensive and useful bibliography. Every chapter ends with “Notes and references”, in which the authors provide their subjective view of some useful books, articles and reports relevant to that chapter.

The text is well written and easy to read except for chapters 8 and 9, which require knowledge of statistics. This is a useful book for managers in organizations, even if they are not intending to implement Six Sigma, as the principles and practices can still be gainfully employed. It is a useful for academics teaching topics related to quality of product and service.