Overview of Chapter 5
In the last chapter, we discussed continuous improvement. In this chapter, we will take our discussion of quality to the context of transport. Much of what we have covered in the previous chapters will form the basis of the discussion here. In addition, we will look at the costs of quality, or, more precisely, the cost of poor quality. Various writers have developed models of working out the costs of poor quality. It is important for us to understand the diversity of thought on this and how the concept may be applied in the operations of an organisation providing transport services. We will see that companies do not always have quality systems in place to maintain high quality of their output.
Topics
The topics to be studied in this chapter are:
- 5.1 Quality in a service industry
- 5.2 Implementing quality in transport
Benefits of environmental responsibility
Contribution to profitability - 5.3 Quality Costs
Quality costing in practice - 5.4 Multimodal transport and sub-contracting
- 5.5 Quality in the operator-client relationship
- 5.6 Importance of Quality to transport services
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
- discuss the role that quality plays in transport;
- explain the role of costs relative to quality;
- identify costs and benefits arising from quality systems in the transport industry.
