Critical To Quality

Key, measurable, features which have been identified by customers / users of a product or service as being of particular importance to them. The term is often shortened to CTQ. Involving customers in identifying the key features can be undertaken using a House of Quality design tool, a CTQ tree, or similar, with the aim being to capture the Voice of the Customer (VOC). The important features can then be prioritised by managers as areas for providing something which a customer sees as being value-added to the product or service.

Performance Quality Standards are measurable criteria for sports surfaces, and these can be rated by customers according to the importance they attach to various individual standards. This approach can also help managers in allocating and monitoring resources to more fully satisfy expectations and desires of users. A deep green surface may not be as high a priority as for example a well striped surface, whilst higher percentages of surface blemishes may be more acceptable to some users than others and this can all impact on costs and the amount and type of materials applied to a surface.

There can often be a difference of opinion as to features which are critical to quality. Whilst a range of detailed PQS criteria are available and of use in a technical respect to a turf manager, many features may actually be of much less importance to paying users / customers than perceived by managers who often take a purist turfculture perspective of what is required but have neglected to clearly capture the voice of the customer.