First of all, for most people, quality means goodness, luxury, shine, or even weight. The word is equal to the value of things. For example; we say that something is of good quality, or we refer to the expression “quality of life”, but as we all know, the quality of life depends on who applies it. Each person has their own definition of quality of life applied to themselves.

Second, quality is thought to be unmeasurable. Such an assumption leads many managers to discuss quality as unattainable. They mistakenly think that it equals kindness, so they waste time in emotional debates; which prevents them from taking logical actions to achieve quality and improve the image of their company.

The third wrong assumption is that some business owners think their industry is different, that quality doesn’t apply to them; or they say they can’t make a good product. Those kinds of excuses lead to “gold plating”—for example, adding a luxury component to a product that doesn’t sell—rather than trying to get it right the first time.

The fourth flawed assumption is the idea that a company’s problems are caused solely by the workers; especially those in manufacturing, call centers, and sales. In general, management’s favorite meeting topic is “what the workers are doing wrong or not doing.” They decide that the employees are doing a lousy job, that the quality on the assembly line is poor. They overlook flaws in accounting, engineering, software, supervisors… when looking for solutions. Although workers may be responsible for errors, they can only do a little to prevent problems, because all the planning and creation happens elsewhere. It is that other place that most needs attention.

The fifth wrong assumption is that quality is the sole responsibility of one department in a company; consequently, when something bad happens, that department is the only one to blame. The quality management office, if any; we should call the problems by the name of those who cause them: accounting problems, manufacturing problems, reception problems… Quality demands that we make each department responsible for the operation of its fields of intervention.

Quality has nothing to do with emotions, it is measurable and achievable.