Quality and Value

• Your customer wants value.

Your customer pays not only the price you charge for your product but also the cost of making sure that it is fit for use and the cost of correcting it when it is not. These costs devalue your product. They are hard to calculate, but your customer recognizes them in many forms: the wages of inspectors and the cost of their equipment; investments in buffer inventory and material on hold; delay and inefficiency in production; reduced quality and reliability of the final product.

• If you don't provide value, someone else will.

Successful suppliers inspire such confidence in the quality of their product that their customers do not inspect it and do not retain buffer inventories because they know it will be ready for use on receipt. Soon, many of your customers will insist on assurances of your quality before they will even consider buying. This is the reason for the growing, worldwide demand for ISO 9000- and ISO/TS 16949-registered Quality Management systems.

• Take this quick test

Ask yourself three simple questions:

1. When did I last replace an order or redo work for a customer?
2. How many former customers now buy from my competitors?
3. Do I ever return materials to my suppliers?

If your answers to these questions are "NEVER", " NONE " and "NO", congratulations!
If not, please browse on.