Measuring quality

There are many factors that can be included as measures of quality: size, volume, speed, finish and output are just a few examples.

It is possible to address each as a separate factor or some times formulae can be created to look at them as a whole.

As sustainability becomes more important to organisations, a broader range of quality factors many need to be considered. For example , is there an impact on the local community? Is there pollution created?

reading

Reading

  1. Have a look at this website Measure What Matters to see how some businesses are addressing this.
  2. This Wikipedia article on Triple Bottom Line provides another way to consider businesses and projects by having a triple bottom line rather than just a financial bottom line.
  3. This also links well to the concept of tolerance.
    • What is the + or – on the measure of quality?
    • Can the product be 2 mm longer and still work or can it only be 0.00002 mm longer?
    • Is there an amount of pollution that is acceptable, such as the quality standards for car emissions?

Forum

  1. Briefly describe any project you are aware of and outline how it addresses quality as it relates to social, economic and environmental measures.
  2. Can you describe the levels of tolerance that it had for some of the quality standards?
    • These might be measurable numbers or they might be described in a sentence.
  3. Post your answers in the forum.