reason, nowadays where competition is

fierce, quality has become one of the means

for the survival of an organization.

The term quality comes from a Latin word

qualitas which means an attribute or a

property. In popular use, the word quality

suggests a degree of excellence that is

expensive and conforming to a high,

perhaps, luxurious specification. Others used

it to mean superior in all aspects to others in

its class. However, scholarly definitions

remain controversial.

According to Deming (2005), quality is all

144 B. Beshah, E. Berhan

about reducing variation and attaining

precision and accuracy of production. He

argues that shop floor day-to-day fight

against variation brings continuous

improvement in the processes of key

performance parameters. In principle,

however, reducing variation mainly depends

on the nominal or the average value. A

variation may not be a guarantee. For

example, a black-and-white television

manufactured with minimum variation does

not have a market or customers as a color

television produced with the same minimum

variation.

Juran (1999) defines quality as “fitness for

use”. This definition has a utility value

concept, which varies from one customer to

another. On the contrary, customers may

purchase products/services to differentiate

social status without considering the

functional use. In airlines transport, the

business class basically determines the social

status of the users. Otherwise, the business

and economic classes do not have much

difference in their functional use of the

services.

Scholars of recent years, however, associate

the essence of quality with customers‟ actual

experience with the product/service (Kumar,

2014). As a result, quality is measured

against requirements which are stated or

implied, conscious or merely sensed,

It becomes appealing to define quality,

briefly; never-ending journey to exceed

customers‟ expectations.

However, there are strong critics of

measuring customers‟ expectation and also

on the methodologies to be followed to

fulfill those expectations. Expectations are

actually a combination of subjective –

emotional and objective – functional

attributes. They are naturally dynamic that

change with time. In Lilja (2006) Kano tries

to level functional fulfillment and emotional

satisfaction targeted in an attribute. The

theory also points out the existence of a

category of quality-elements that are of

particular interest. The attributes have been

given considerable words of praise but have

principally failed to be reflected in the

current quality practice. For example, Digital

Versatile/Video Disk (DVD) was devised

many years before it became popular and

widespread, because its potential was not

perceived by customers in the early stage

(Franceschini, 2002).
The quality improvement approach was

started by product inspection and

progressively developed in depth and

breadth. In general, the past Century has

been entirely emphasized on „product

quality‟ during manufacturing only. After

the middle 20th Century, the idea of „product

quality‟ flourished, especially, in the

designing stages of products and their

processes. However, so far, limited effort has

been visible about lifecycle quality that

includes the life-time of a product from

purchase to disposal.

The critical question left unanswered at

present is the methods and techniques to

create a satisfied or delighted customer

whatever the expectations are. Therefore, the

remaining task of this paper is to summarize

the past and present approaches of quality

paradigms that were/are adopted to enhance

customers‟ satisfaction. It addresses their

limitations and produce examples to show

what directions the theory and practice of

quality will take.

Approaches

Improving ways of doing things dated back

to the human civilization time. Scientific

quality improvement methodologies

emerged as a discipline during the industrial

revolution. Since then, manufacturers‟

concern are also stretched backward to keep

quality at the source from the suppliers‟ side

and forward by their after-sales service to

support users on the customers‟ side. Thus

quality improvement methodologies have

145

passed through different phases, namely,

quality inspection, quality control, quality

management and quality engineering. Each

of these phase are explained in brief below

(Gidey et al., 2014).

In a quality-by-inspection phase, one or

more characteristics of a product are

examined, measured or tested, and compared

with a pre-specified requirement to assess its

conformity. Products which do not conform

or sold at a discount as lower quality items.

This method is an after-the-fact screening

process with no prevention content.

In the quality control phase, important

characteristics of a product are continuously

tested and documented to ensure greater

process control and reduce non-

conformance. Typical characteristics of this

method are performance data collection,

feedback to earlier stages in the process, and

self-inspection. This led to greater process

control and a lower incidence of non-

conformance.

Whereas, in Quality Management (QM)

phase, quality concepts and principles are

applied to all facets of an organization

including: sales, finance, personnel,

planning, purchasing and other non-

manufacturing functions. Total Quality

Management (TQM), Six-Sigma and Lean

Six-Sigma are recent advancements of this

discipline. At company level, QM is the

highest form of quality improvement. As a

management theory, QM gained a sudden

was soon forgotten or appeared old-

fashioned.

In the case quality engineering phase, since

it inbuilt qualities in the product and process

design, prevention of defects and quality

costs are actually begin with the engineering

design. The design determines the materials

and often the machines, processes and skills

required to manufacture a product for the

marketplace (Huggins, 1998). This method

of quality improvement relied on the product

and process design.

As mentioned above, manufacturers are also

stretched backward to keep quality at the

source from the suppliers‟ side and

forwarded by their after-sales service to

support users on the customers‟ side. As the

quality of a product is not only determined

by the internal process of a company,

organizations trie