Quality refers to all those features of a product or service which are required by the

customer. It is defined as a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects,

deficiencies, and significant variations, brought about by the strict and consistent
adherence to measurable and verifiable standards to achieve uniformity of output that
satisfies specific customer or user requirements. ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality
as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability
to satisfy stated or implied needs."

Quality management means what the organization does to ensure that its products
conform to the customer’s requirements. Quality management is focused not only on
product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it. Quality management therefore
uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more
consistent quality.

Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the
various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum
standards of quality are being attained by the production process. QA cannot absolutely
guarantee the production of quality products.

Quality is the customers' perception of the value of the suppliers' work output.

"Quality is nothing more or less than the perception the customer has of you, your
products, and your services"!

Quality is considered as the most powerful factor to capture, retain and enlarge customer
base in the modern business scenario. Achieving customer satisfaction is the essential
business of business and quality management is the most effective enterprise strategy.
The state-of-the-art quality management is an embodiment of concepts, methods and
applications. In the last few years, the business world has stood witness to many real life
success stories.

Planning and achieving higher level of quality is fundamental to the successful

operation of enterprises, which necessitates understanding and managing various
dynamics in an organization in order to set goals and judiciously deploy resources.
The efficiency and effectiveness with which resources are obtained and utilized will
depend upon the good management practices that the organization follows.� Quality
management also necessitates how well the system measures, monitors and
improves different metrics related to the business processes. Interrelationships
among the business processes, their metrics and the organizational achievement are
influenced by how well an organization deals with issues related to quality.