In a layman language quality is good, excellent and long-lasting. But quality can best be defined in following ways:

Quality is fit to use

Quality is free from defect

Conform to requirements

Customer satisfaction

Any product or service is a quality one if customer perceives it. This is because in this age of competition customer is considered to be the king. And the organization should always aims for finding efficient and effective methods for maintaining and upgrading the quality.

The word quality means different things to different people. David Garvin identifies five perspectives on quality:

Transcendent approach: This view represents mark of uncompromising standards and high achievement. It argues that people learn quality only from experience or repeated exposure.

Product based approach: This approach states that quality is recognized by the total of attributes possessed by the product.

User based approach: This view tells that quality lies in the eyes of beholder. This definition equates quality with maximum satisfaction enjoyed by the customer.

Manufacturing based approach: This view explains quality in terms of engineering manufacturing practices. It focuses on conformance to internal specifications which are attained by productivity and cost containment goals. Value based approach: This approach describes quality in terms of price and value. Quality comes to defined as affordable excellence.

Why to achieve quality?

Quality is needed to be achieved because in today's competitive scenario a business can grow only by serving their customers and providing maximum satisfaction to customers at least cost. The quality achievement is necessary for delighting the customer and providing the organization a competitive edge. Until and unless the product or service is not a quality one it will not be entertained by target market. There is a cause and effect type relationship between customer and business where customer is the cause and business is the effect.

How quality can be achieved?

Any product or service cannot achieve quality on its own but it needs to be achieved through planning and management. The organization should follow a good quality management practices like TQM. TQM aims at combining the efforts of entire organization from employees of all departments for achieving improved quality in order to provide customer full satisfaction.