Product Quality by Dr.

GARVIN (1984)

Dr. David A Garvin, Ph.D professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School wrote an
interesting article about What does product quality really mean? where:
He identified 5 major approaches of defining quality arising from scholars in 4 disciplines:
philosophy, economics, marketing, and operations management.
He built an 8-dimensional framework to elaborate on those definitions.
Using that framework, he addresses the empirical relationships between quality and some
important variables.
5 APPROACHES
The following mind map, explain the 5 approaches of defining quality:

1. Performance
It refers to products primary operating characteristics; in other words it refers to the efficiency with a
product achieves its intended purpose. i.e.: acceleration in an automobile.
2. Features
They
are
the
"bells
and
whistles"
of
products,
the Performancecharacteristics. i.e.: free drinks in a plane flight.

the

extras

that

supplement

3. Reliability
It reflects the probability of a products failing within a specified period of time; in other words it reflects
the propensity of a product to perform consistently over its useful designed life.
Common measures of reliability in durable goods: MTFF (mean time to first failure) and MTBF (mean
time between failures). (*)
4. Conformance
It refers to the degree to which a product's design and operating characteristics match preestablished
standards.

It involves:
* Internal elements (within the factory): conformance is measured commonly by the incidence of defects
(proportion of all units that fail to meet specifications and so required rework or repair).
* External elements (in the filed): conformance is measured commonly by the quantity of repairs under
warranty.
5. Durability
It refers to the measure of product life, defined in 2 dimensions:
* Technically: durability is the amount of use one gets from a product before it physically deteriorates,
and the repair is impossible (i.e. after so many hours of use, the filament of a light bulb burns up and
the bulb must be replaced).
* Economically: durability is the amount of use one gets from a product before it breaks down, and
the repair is possible.
The products life is determined by repair costs, personal valuations of time and inconveniences, losses
due to downtime and other economic variables. (*)
6. Serviceability
It refers to the speed, courtesy, and competence of the repair service. Objective and subjective views
play a role in defining serviceability.
7. Aesthetics
How a product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells (appearance and impression):quality is view as the
combination of these attributes that best match the consumer preferences.
8. Perceived Quality
The manner and feel the consumers experiment using the product.
(*) Durability and Reliability are related: a product that fails frequently (low Durability), is likely to be
scrapped earlier than one that is more Reliable.