Lesson 2 - Quality Assurance and Quality Management

Quality can be subjective; it can vary depending on the context in which it is considered and the perspective of those considering it. For example, a craft beer fan who loves sour farmhouse ales is likely to have a different opinion about what is the highest quality beer than attendees at the Munich Oktoberfest. We will now examine the differing definitions of quality:

Quality as fitness for purpose

We have all experienced using something that does not quite do the job. A good example is a mobile/cell phone which looks great and can take 400-megapixel photos, but it takes you 10 minutes to find the phone number you are looking for. While it has been manufactured to the highest standards, the quality is inherently poor because it is not fit for purpose. This relates to the next definition.

Quality as customer satisfaction

Ultimately all companies rely on satisfied customers for success. This definition places customer perception at the centre of quality. Another term for customer satisfaction is meeting customer expectations. Measuring quality as defined here is difficult as customers are diverse, and satisfaction is subjective and qualitative.

Quality as conformance to specification

Instead of looking from the consumer’s perspective, we can focus on the product. The conformance to specification definition views quality as the product being as it is supposed to be. It is possible to argue that this does not necessarily mean it will be good. Just that it will be ‘in spec’. However, if you can build the target consumers’ needs into the specification and/or customers have tried the product and enjoyed it, there will be a direct link between conformance to specification and the previous two definitions; in this case customers will be happy if the product conforms or disappointed if it does not.

This gives us a good idea of which quality definition is most appropriate to apply in the context of making beer. Only conformance to specification seems relevant for our scientific/systematic approach. However, if we can get our specification to encompass the needs of the customer and how they want to consume the beer, this will give us quality criteria that fully fit the bill. So our working definition of quality looks like this:

Quality is the conformance to specifications which reflect the needs and wants of the consumer.

So far, we have talked about quality in the context of the product and its relationship with the consumer. In modern quality management, the term quality is applied to all activities of an organisation. Everything – from the design of production facilities to how peoples’ roles are defined – is managed to ensure quality throughout the organisation. Our conformance to specification fits with this approach to quality. In another approach, all activities within the organisation are customer–supplier interactions, which also fits with the customer satisfaction definition. Every department and individual is said to be a customer. For example, a brewhouse team leader is a customer of the laboratory because the lab is supplying them with analytical results, and in turn their customer is the cellar team leader to whom they supply wort.   

We now have a good idea of what quality means to us as brewers. Next, we will explore the means by which we aim to control it and the systems and tools we can use to guarantee or assure it.