How My Current Students Define Quality

Another semester of instructing outstanding undergraduate and graduate students at Ferris State University is underway.  This semester I have three courses and 85 students; 44 of these students are in MGMT 370 Quality/Operations Management.  As is usual, I would explain to my students in this course that if you asked 10 different quality professionals to define quality you would get 10 different answers. So in their groups, I had them craft their own definition of quality. It’s only week two of the course and I think they did pretty good.

Here are how my students define quality…

·       Team Amy, Witni, Erica, Gina, Kyle, and Rachel definition:  To be precise in a professional manner with excellent, accurate service that exceeds client and community standards and expectations.

·       Team Kellie, Hailley, Eric, and John definition: 1) Characteristics of a service or good that meets or exceeds expectations of the stakeholders. 2) Degree of excellence of something.  3) Standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind.

·       Team Maria, Mike, Carson, Gaurav, and Kevin definition: Quality is satisfying a defined expectation.

·       Team James, Abu, Mike, Chris, and Conner definition: 1) The best. 2) Keeping standards as high as possible. 3) High standard of excellence of product, service, employees, from top to bottom.

·       Team Jake, Drew, and Brynadette definition: Quality is a combination of value you receive from a product or service, constructed of positive feedback, longevity above standard expectations.

·       Team Elizabeth, Colten, Amanda, Karen, and Courtney definition:  Delivering expected goods or services on time without defect.

·       Team Jessica, Aisha, Jamie, Mayom, Chrissy, and Mike definition:  A consistent standard that meets a set of measurements agreed upon by an industry?

·       Team Andrea, Ben, and Abdul definition:  1) Long-lasting. 2) Above average / Excellent / Superior. 3) Durable. 4) Passes industry standards (certification, seal, etc.).

My definition of quality remains the same…

·       Quality is an abstract state of excellence or goodness characterized by the extent to which discriminating consumers are satisfied with the particular product and/or service consumed.