thảo luận nhóm TMU BUSINESS ENGLISH 2 2 concepts of quality as seen from different perspectives and quality evaluation

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

BUSINESS ENGLISH 2.2
TOPIC 1: CONCEPTS OF QUALITY AS SEEN FROM
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND QUALITY
EVALUATION
Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc
Group: 8
Members: Bùi Thu Phương
Nguyễn Thị Thảo
Trần Thị Lệ Quyên
Nguyễn Thị Thơi
Vũ Thị Phượng


OUTLINE
I. OVERVIEW.
AI. QUALITY PERSPECTIVE FROM DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES.
1. The marketing manager
2. Quality auditors
3. The end-user
BI. QUALITY EVALUATION.
1. Definition and roles of quality evaluation
2. Process of quality evaluation
IV. CONCLUSION.

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I. Overview.
1. Quality.
 What is quality?
- Quality refers to how good something is compared to other similar things. In other
words, its degree of excellence. When used to describe people, it refers to a distinctive
characteristic or attribute that they possess. In this sense, we can also use the term for
things. If I think that Mary‟s best attribute is her honesty, I can say “Mary‟s best
quality is her honesty”.
In business, especially manufacturing, it is a measure of excellence. In this context, it
can also refer to a state of being defect-free.
The term contrasts with the word “quantity”. When somebody says „how much,‟ we think
about quantity. If they say „how good,‟ on the other hand, we think about quality.
- Besides, quality means “Performance upon expectations” and “Fit for functions.”
A product is said to be of good quality if it satisfy the customer requirements in terms
of performance, grade, durability, appearance and intended use/purpose, etc.
The word “Quality” has variety of meanings and definitions which are mentioned
below :
+ Fitness for use/purpose: The component is said to be posses good quality, if it
works well in the equipment for which it is meant. In other words, the product should
be suitable for the intended use/purpose. Thus it is defined as fitness for purpose.
For example: A gear utilized in sugarcane juice extracting machine might not possess
good quality surface finish, tolerance and accuracy as compared with the gear utilized
in the top stock of a lathe.
But still it may be considered of good quality if it works satisfactory in the juice
extracting machine. Therefore, the quality is defined as “the fitness for use/purpose” at
the foremost economical level.
+ Conformance to requirements: It is the ability of the material/component to perform
satisfactory in the application for which it is intended by the user. Quality of a product,
thus, means conformance to customer‟s requirements. This is Manufacturing-based
definition.

Grade: It is a distinguishing feature or grade of the product in appearance,
performance, life, reliability, taste and maintainability etc. This is generally called as
quality characteristics.
+ Degree of Excellence: It is a measure of a degree of excellence at a suitable price
and control of variability at a suitable cost. This is often Value-based definition.
+ Degree of preference: It is the degree of to which a particular product is preferred
over competing products of similar grade, supported comparative test by customers,
normally called as customer‟s preference.
+ Measure of fulfillment of promises: The Quality of a product may be a measure of
fulfillment of the guarantees made to the purchasers/users.
+ British Defence Industries Quality Assurance Panel: Quality is conformance to
specifications.
+ Definition by ISO: The totality of features and characteristics of product or service
that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs revolving around customer.

2. Quality and quantity.
Quality is a measure of excellence or of a state of being. It describes something,
either of how it was made, or how if is as compared to others. Quantity, on the other
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hand, is the extent, size, or sum of something. It is countable or measurable, and can
be expressed as a numerical value.
Quality and Quantity are two terms that one often comes across, especially in
business, research, physics, and even in everyday life. The main difference between
quality and quantity is the fact that quality refers to the characteristic or feature of
something, whereas quantity refers to the numerical value of something.
Quality is subjective, whereas quantity is not. Quality is subjective to each individual‟s
opinion. One person might think that something is of great quality, whereas another might
think that it is of low quality. However, one cannot dispute quantity. If there are five

things, then there are five things. One cannot claim that there are four or six.
Basically, quality is a measure of excellence or of a state of being. It describes
something, either of how it was made, or how if is as compared to others. Quantity, on
the other hand, is the extent, size, or sum of something. It is countable or measurable,
and can be expressed as a numerical value.
In business, there has been a continuous discussion on the basis of Quality vs Quantity.
There are many bosses or managers who focus on quantity as opposed to quality of
work. While, there are others who want both quality and quantity in the shortest
amount of time possible. There are very few that prefer quality over quantity.
 What does “quantity over quality” mean?
Quantity of a work is more important than the quality of a work. Quality over
quantity favors innately superior things over larger quantities of inferior things; even
when it means having less of the superior thing. It applies to the tangible, as well as
the intangible. For example, one‟s preference for quality might be exhibited through
approaching things with optimal effort vs without care.
3. The importance of quality.
Quality is an important dimension of production and operations management. It is
not sufficient to produce products/goods or services in the right quantity and at right
time; it is important to ensure that the goods/items and services produced/provided are
of the right quality.
The consumer of the final product of company/organization requires a certain quantity
of products of requisite quantity as per his requirements. Without quality, the other
dimensions of quality and time have little rather no relevance.
The lives of human beings are effected to a great extent by the quality of products and
services. Quality failures may and would result in serious human inconveniences,
wastage of money and sometimes loss of life.
In the early twentieth century, consumers/users were expected to pay extra for
quality. However in the present day competitive business market quality is no longer
an option. In other words, it is a positive need without which the survival of an
organization is not possible.

 With above statement, people want to confirm the importance of quality:

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Firstly, quality is the best way to increase competition and attract customer.
Quality product helps to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Reduce the risk, loss of replacing faculty goods.
Quality influences yours reputation.
Quality makes the customers continue to buy from you in the future.

Quality product makes an important contribution to long-term revenue and profitability.
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4. Quality evaluation.
 Core definition: Evaluation (of quality or standards) is the process of examining

and passing a judgment on the appropriateness or level of quality or standards.

 Explanatory context: Quality evaluation may be undertaken internally or

externally. External evaluation is a process for undertaking an independent
evaluation.
* Note: evaluation is often used in a generic way to mean any kind of review of
quality or standards, irrespective of any evaluative judgement being passed. It is even
used as shorthand for external quality evaluation. In some settings evaluation is used

to encompass all forms of quality assurance other than accreditation.
Currently, counterfeiting, counterfeit goods, poor quality goods is one persistent
problem of society. It brings to society many negative consequences: not as small as
affecting health, consumer finance. It is important and essential to evaluate quality
product.
AI. Quality perspective from different perspectives.
1. Marketing manager.
A marketing manager is someone who manages the marketing of a business or
product. They can be responsible for several services or products, or be in charge of a
single product. A marketing manager needs to have an outgoing, gregarious, and
spontaneous nature. In concert with these traits, they need to be highly focused, detailoriented, and very conscientious of meeting budget restraints and timeliness.
Marketing managers have a variety of responsibilities, such as putting together
estimates and budgets for marketing campaigns, submitting them for approval,
working with advertising agencies, being involved in negotiations, preparing sales and
advertising contracts, and reviewing advertising material such as print material, TV
commercials, and online advertisements.
 Responsibility of a marketing manager:
 Have responsibility for evaluating consumer research, market conditions and competitor
data.
 Under huge pressure of customer expectations and customer satisfaction in quality.
 Set up a focus group to observe how and why people use the products.
 Test out whether various features of product.

The duties of a marketing manager can vary by company and by industry. However,
most marketing managers share some common responsibilities.
Marketing managers are responsible for the visual quality of a product when it is made
available to the public. If the quality of the marketing campaign is good, it will bring
efficiency to the company. Finally, for a marketing manager, quality is the
achievement they make when reaching customers. If the recognition is high and viral
is wide, the coverage of the product will be large leading to positive consumption.

2. Quality auditor.
 What is “quality audit”?
Quality audit can easily understand as the official process which we re-test the
quality and safety of products to ensure that they meet the company's expected
standards before they reach consumers‟ hand.
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The quality auditor is the person who monitors the quality of the products or services.
They create testing parameters for products and services, develop quality control
procedures, perform audits, and oversee quality control teams. They may be employed
in various sectors, including manufacturing, food and beverages, or IT.
 The responsibilities of a quality auditor in a company.
In a business, the role of a quality auditor is very important because he/she has to
take a big mount of tasks and responsibilities. They are the responsibilities for the
quality and safety of products and services. Before reaching customers‟ hand, all the
parameters of the products are carefully checked and if there is any error, they will be
adjusted to conform to established standards. Below are some main tasks that a quality
auditor needs to take in a company to ensure the quality of the products:
 Developing and implementing quality control audit plans:
 Identifying testing parameters for products.
 Evaluating production stages and testing the composition, appearance, and functionality
of completed products.
 Assigning team members to quality audits and overseeing their work.
 Training employees on quality standards and procedures.
 Ensuring that products comply with industry standards.
 Documenting defects and recommendations for improvement.
 Preparing and presenting quality audit reports to senior management.
 Keeping abreast of industry standards and regulations.

Things need to be a good quality auditor.
To get the best products, a company needs to have good quality auditors. Therefore,
to have a good quality, a staff need to plan specifically for inspection and supervision.


 Schedule regular audits:

An audit process should not occur suddenly, a quality auditor should schedule
periodic audits to supervise the producing process which allow staffs to prepare
carefully for the document, data,… of the products. In other hand, a sudden audit
process will confuse the employees, which will adversely affect work efficiency.
 Determine the scope of the audit:

A quality auditor need to properly define the part to be monitored and checked. This
thing is very necessary. They should concentrate on the fields that are highly at risk.
They need to check the working process of the staff to find out the inefficiencies and
then find solution to cover them. There‟s also an important thing that the test criteria
be consistent with the company's growth.
 Conducting the audit:

While the quality audit process takes place, a close coordination of quality auditors
is in the need. The quality auditors will one by one take responsibility for one step,
they check the efficiency, safety,… of each step. And then at the end of each audit, the
results are aggregated in a report. The group of the quality auditors will work on to
discuss the problem and find the solution (if have).
 Reporting on the audit:

The report is the synthesis of the results of quality audit. Quality auditors should
provide correctly the information, data, document… that they had check. Moreover,
they also need to highlight the successes of the working team to motivate the

employees.
Above all, I‟ve show you about the quality auditor. I hope my presentation will help to
know better how a quality auditor work in an enterprise.
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3. Concept of "Quality" from the perspective of the end-user.

The viewpoint of end-user:
"Quality is the conformance to the requirements and the intended use and the
satisfaction of the consumer".
According to this approach, the characteristics of the product that meet the needs of
the customer are considered product quality. The level of demand satisfaction is the
basis for assessing product quality. Here, product quality does not need to be the best
or the highest, it just needs to be suitable and meet the needs of consumers. Not only
that, for product or service features, we all know that some of the products that people
buy are intended to meet usability requirements rather than functional properties. So
requirements are the most important thing to evaluate the quality of a product or
service.
This quality approach is business, it depends on the perception of the customer.
Business is always dependent on consumer needs. The advantage here is that company
can sell appropriately in each different market. If company apply this viewpoint
accurately and flexibly to each different case, we will see that products will be
consumed strongly in the markets where customers have demand and are able to
satisfy their needs.
Customers' requirements for products or services are usually: good, beautiful,
durable, long-term, convenient, and affordable. A product or service that does not meet
the needs of the customer is considered poor quality. High or low quality rating must
be based on the consumer point of view. For the same use purpose, the product which
satisfies higher consumer demand is of higher quality. Therefore, products and goods

need to be improved, renewed on a regular and timely manner in order to best satisfy
the needs of consumers. This is also a great difficulty that manufacturers and traders
have to find answers and orient for business by themselves.
From the perspective of the customer, Product quality must be demonstrated
through the following factors:
 The perfection of the product: this is the factor to help us distinguish one
product from another. often expressed in terms of the standards it meets. This is also
the minimum that every companies must provide customers through its products.

Price: the cost to manufacture the product and the cost to buy and use it. People often
call this the price to satisfy demand.
 Timeliness: showing both quality and time.

Suitable for specific consumption conditions: products can only be

considered quality when they are suitable for specific consumption conditions.
Companies must pay attention to this when launching products into different
markets to ensure business success.

In fact, in production and business, if not paying enough attention to the above
factors, it will lead to enormous and serious damage.
 The above conceptions show that quality is always considered in the
relationship and closely depends on market factors. The definitions of the quality of
products and services are aimed at satisfying the needs of customers under certain
specific conditions. This approach helps businesses achieve their goals of customer
satisfaction, consolidate the market and achieve sustainable long-term success in
financial indicators.
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III. QUALITY EVALUATION.
1. Definition and roles of quality evaluation.
 Definition of quality evaluation.
Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject‟s merit, worth and
significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards.
Quality evaluation is the process of examining and passing a judgment on the
appropriateness or the level of quality.
 Roles of quality evaluation.
Quality evaluation provides the information on the improving a product or a process.
It helps show the error and inappropriate point of a product or a process based on the
standards set by experts. Therefore, the improvement will be easier, faster and ensuring
accuracy after finishing. By continuously improving products to achieve the best, this
help meet the needs of users.
Quality evaluation provides the information of short-term effectiveness or long-term
impact to deciding the adoption of a product or a process. It helps predict what will
happen to avoid during the finishing process. It also helps save time, effort and money
when creating a product or a process.
Quality evaluation can fulfil a variety of roles in the quality assurance process,
including acting as part of the quality assessment process or as a structure for devising
quality enhancement plans. By providing activities that require recorded outputs,
evaluation can produce documentary evidence of assumptions, processes and outputs.
These provide a rich source of evidence for quality assurance and assessment purposes
and are of value to seek recognition for product quality.
Quality evaluation is designed to contribute to quality enhancement procedures. It is
an important procedure to recognize the quality of a product or a process. One
example of this would be to evaluate a new product before launching market. It needs
to be through an evaluation process to ensure quality as well as be recognized in the
market.
Quality evaluation contributes to the traditional notion of quality as excellence. This
allows widespread innovation and improvements to quality, in marked contrast to the

implicit and tacit expertise that frequently remains with the early adopters within
communities. What makes evaluation particularly relevant in the context of quality
assurance is the importance of sound procedures and documentary evidence for
decision making.
2. The indication of product quality evaluation.
It is well known that nowadays, clients expect high quality of purchased products
and therefore, companies have to able to measure and evaluate the quality of products
they supply, trying to see the measure in which those satisfy costumer’s needs and
expectations. The quality level of products can be measured using many indicators.
 Features of the products function.
What is the product supposed to do and what should it be used for? Each product
has different the feature of the product function. It is necessary to create outstanding
function to compete with the same kind of products in the market because customers
always look for products which have various functions to satisfy their demand.
 The safety of the products.
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The tests of the safety of the products can include mechanical, physical, electrical,
chemical and flammability tests. These can evaluate product energy efficiency,
reliability and durability, that is, the product should continue to work as intended over
an appropriately long period of time. In particular, about the mechanical properties,
physical, chemical properties such as size, structure, composition, it is important to
answer some questions such as What materials is the product made from?; What does
the product contain?; Where is the product made from? How is the product made,
stored and used safely?. etc.
 Performance and stability.
How to evaluate performance and stability of product? It includes: No severity 1
bugs are present (or whatever categorization you use); Product performs according to
the established metrics (page load time, number of concurrent sessions, etc); The

product is stable and doesn‟t crash or hang; New features didn‟t break any of the
existing functionality.
 The aesthetic criteria of the product.
Aesthetics of product is a valuable element because many consumers purchase not
only a product but also value and experience. Consumers‟ inferring of product design
is mainly related to how they are in an interaction with the product. The concept of
visual product aesthetics usually plays a basic role for ideas about the sensory
character of the products. Furthermore, visual aesthetics is a one of the most important
factors affecting consumer perception in many ways. An outstanding product design
helps to distinguish products from its competitors and enables to make a difference in
the market. Besides, product design can affect people's quality of life positively.
 Environmentally Friendly.
The materials it contains: Eco-friendly products usually contain material that's been
recycled, material that's easily recycled, or material gathered from a natural source,
like bamboo, which is easy to replace and minimally damaging to harvest.
Environmentally friendly products avoid toxic chemicals known to cause harm.
The way it's produced: An environmentally friendly product can be made in a
facility powered by solar power, for example, or in a building designed to use the least
amount of water possible.
The manner it's used: Products might encourage environmentally conscious behaviors
in consumers. Reusable water bottles, for example, help people avoid buying one-use
plastic water bottles, which can clog landfills if not recycled.
 The reliability.
Reliability is the probability that a product or equipment will perform satisfactorily
for a given time under normal conditions of use. So reliability is related to quality but
it is something more than that. Quality is concerned with the initial performance of a
product or a service whereas reliability is related to the continuation of performance
over a period of time.A product having better performance initially may fail to provide
the same performance later on. In such a case a product is not considered reliable.
Hence, the manufacturers should produce not only quality products but also reliable

products.
Whether a product is reliable or not depends on the probability of its failure during a
given period and the time span for which it provides the rated performance. To
improve the reliability of products; data/information related to failures during a given
period of time is collected; analyzed and corrective actions are taken. The
measurement of reliability depends on the type of products. The conditions of use of
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the product are also to be taken into consideration while measuring the reliability of a
product. A product if not used properly or if it is not well maintained its useful life
may be shortened and its reliability may decrease.
 Price and Life Cycle Costs.
For products of similar specifications and quality, price becomes a key
consideration. Life cycle costs include productivity savings, operating costs,
maintenance costs and residual values as well as initial purchase price.
When evaluating products some companies make detailed evaluations of life cycle
costs, because they realize that during the life of the equipment it may actually incur
costs few time the initial price of the equipment, in the form of operating costs and
maintenance costs.
Customers want to pay small or suitable money, and company wants to find out the
cheapest or the most suitable price. As a result, company wants to survive in the
competitive market, they must have suitable cost and price campaign.
 Others:
- Ease of transport and storage.
- Saving fuel consumption, energy.
- Ease repair.
- Ease of use.
IV. CONCLUTION.
In the past two decades the quality gap has been significantly determined between

competitive products and services. Many countries have progress the values of quality
in order to meet up customer demands and global standards. The clarifying concept of
quality helps practitioners to position their quality management practices. It explains
how to reduce uncertainty in improving the quality of the products, ultimately to
achieve competitive advantage. In recent years, the product quality evaluation has
been more and more focused on. Through the product quality evaluation results, it is
beneficial for the enterprises to better control the weak links in the existing product
quality system and provide a reference for improving the product quality. Product
quality evaluation will provide an important basis for product quality improvement
and play a certain role in improving product quality and improving customer
satisfaction in manufacturing enterprises.

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