These organisations should concentrate on introducing quality and government should provide an enabling environment
MULTAN: Ensuring the quality of various products and processes is a long-drawn process and requires hard work and proper management. In the developed countries, most organisations have proper quality control departments. In the modern competitive world, there is a fierce rivalry among organisations to gain competitive edge through ensuring quality products and services. The renowned sampling techniques developed by American Dr W Edwards Deming in the 1950s became the reason for the success of the Japanese economy.
However, even today in Pakistan many companies opt for cheap pricing options rather than ensuring quality control in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. Pakistani consumers do not trust local companies because of their past experiences with low-quality products. This is a major reason why there is little faith in online shopping here. Perhaps, we should learn from China in this regard. In recent times, China has started focusing on improving the quality of its products in a bid to improve the image of the country which has so far been associated with low-quality products. This is the reason that China is taking the economic world by storm.
Unfortunately, in my experience, there are hardly any Pakistani organisations that give importance to quality. Even at the government level, the quality of services provided to the public is questionable. It seems that the Pakistan Institute of Quality Control has been set up simply as a formality. It is yet to actually deliver any significant results. Due to increasing globalisation, consumers in Pakistan are beginning to be more concerned about quality. That is why many people’s first choice is to opt for consumer goods produced by multinational corporations or imported products, if they can afford them. Pakistani organisations, due to a lack of concern about quality and greater concern with cutting corners and maximising profits, are losing their edge by the day. Organisations in the country must come out of the cycle of blaming fate for their failures and concentrate on introducing quality in their services and products. In addition, the government must also provide an enabling environment and monitor the quality levels maintained by organisations.
Muhammad Soban Badar
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2016.
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