ITPEC IP April 2025 Question 76
According to the ISO 9000 family, quality is defined as the “degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.” When products are evaluated on the basis of this definition, which of the following is most appropriate as a product with good quality?
Explanation
A product with no customer complaints and high customer satisfaction — under ISO 9000, quality is measured by how well the product fulfils requirements, and those are the customer's.
The definition does not ask how a product is made or what it is made of; it asks whether its inherent characteristics fulfil the requirements, meaning the needs and expectations stated or implied by the customer. ISO 9000 names customer focus as the first quality-management principle, and customer satisfaction is the customer's view of how far those requirements were met. A product with no complaints and high satisfaction is the evidence that it fulfils them.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — making the product in-house is a sourcing decision; an in-house product can still fail the customer's requirements
- •(c) — CAD and CAM are design and manufacturing tools; they may help, but using them says nothing about whether requirements are fulfilled
- •(d) — high-grade materials and components are inputs; a product built from them can still be unfit for what the customer needs
Key rule: In the ISO 9000 sense, quality is conformity to the customer's requirements, not luxury or grade: a cheap product that meets its requirements has good quality.
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