Ronnie Hyatt
Discussion Questions
Week 1&2

1Question 1: Quality is not an attribute of the object or product, it is a perception that relates a person observing or using a product to that product. Quality is not absolute, but relative. Quality might change along the stages. A new product could be a 'quality' product if it is full of bells and whistles, while later in life dependability and reliability are perhaps a better description of what is 'quality'. This makes quality hard to define: Subjective and evolving. You can improve your understanding of quality by making a commitment to be more efficient at what you do and measuring the success of that. Mistakes can also be tracked and then improvements can be made. While service and production share many attributes, services have more diverse quality attributes than products. For example, a product like a personal computer is typically evaluated on its merits, and it makes little difference to the user whether the person that assembled the computer was in a bad mood the day the computer was made. Service settings are more complex; thus quality is more difficult to define. A customer of a restaurant, for example, evaluates the quality of the restaurant not only on the merits of the food but also on the demeanor of the employees, the speed of the service, the location of the restaurant, the pleasantness of the surroundings, and so forth.While service and production share many attributes, services have more diverse quality attributes than products. For example, a product like a personal computer is typically evaluated on its merits, and it makes little difference to the user whether the person that assembled the computer was in a bad mood the day the computer was made. Service settings are more complex; thus quality is more difficult to define. A customer of a restaurant, for example, evaluates the quality of the restaurant not only on the merits of the food but also on the demeanor of the employees, the speed of the service, the location of the restaurant, the pleasantness of the surroundings, and so forth.While service and production share many attributes, services have more diverse quality attributes than products. For example, a product like a personal computer is typically evaluated on its merits, and it makes little difference to the user whether the person that assembled the computer was in a bad mood the day the computer was made. Service settings are more complex; thus quality is more difficult to define. A customer of a restaurant, for example, evaluates the quality of the restaurant not only on the merits of the food but also on the demeanor of the employees, the speed of the service, the location of the restaurant, the pleasantness of the surroundings, and so forth.While service and production share many attributes, services have more diverse quality attributes than products. For example, a product like a personal computer is typically evaluated on its merits, and it makes little difference to the user whether the person that assembled the computer was in a bad mood the day the computer was made. Service settings are more complex; thus quality is more difficult to define. A customer of a restaurant, for example, evaluates the quality of the restaurant not only on the merits of the food but also on the demeanor of the employees, the speed of the service, the location of the restaurant, the pleasantness of the surroundings, and so forth.
2. Question 3: While service and product quality share many attributes, services have more diverse quality attributes than products. For example, a product like an Apple iPhone personal is typically evaluated on its merits, and it makes little difference to the user whether the person that assembled the iPhone was in a bad mood the day the iPhone was made. Service settings are more complex; thus quality is more difficult to define. A customer of a Mexican restaurant, evaluates the quality of the restaurant not only on the merits of