What is quality?

Quality is defined by the customer. A quality product or service meets customer requirements. Not all customers have the same requirements.

Two products may both be seen as quality products by their different users. For example, a village football team might be happy with a good football that they can kick around in a Sunday afternoon fixture. In contrast, the England football team would require a football that was up to international football (FIFA) standards. Quality can therefore be defined as being fit for the customer's purpose.

The most successful organisations are those that give customers what they want. Satisfied customers are loyal to those companies they feel best understand their requirements. As a result, they make repeat purchases and often recommend a business to their friends.

Organisations that meet standards in everything they do are most likely to give their customers the required quality. This is why a Quality Management System is so important. Quality Management is the process of managing quality at every stage within an organisation and commitment to it begins with the senior managers.

Every organisation would like to improve the way it operates.

A quality management framework helps an organisation to improve all its operations and helps to ensure it can maintain its ability continually to improve its performance.

Best practice

BSI helps organisations to identify best practice in the manufacture of materials or products and translate this practice into standards. For example, standards for sports equipment, such as basketball goal posts, highlight the need to use the most suitable materials and fixtures in the equipment. BSI works with industry specialists to identify best practices.

Currently BSI publishes almost 20,000 standards and each year adds 2,000 new or revised standards to the list.