Procurement terms: Q

Quality is defined within the relevant standard ISO 9000 as ‘the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements’. Requirements in this case are needs or expectations, and refer to the ability of a product or service to satisfy the customer’s needs. Quality is rarely an absolute standard and can only be measured against a customer’s needs or reasonable expectations. In procurement, quality is always a key factor in decision-making and is often the single most important factor; if the solution chosen is not fit for the intended purpose, why would you select it? There are also legal obligations on suppliers to supply goods of acceptable quality. This implies that goods need to reach a basic level of quality given the price of the goods and any description that is provided with the goods. The goods need to be fit for all the purposes for which the goods are commonly supplied, acceptable in appearance and finish, safe, durable and free from defects and faults.Services must be carried out with due skill and care and any materials provided as part of the service must also be fit for the purpose.While the legislation is targeted at consumer transactions, it is important in business-to-business procurement that buyers make sure potential suppliers are aware of the purposes for which the purchase is required. This is why output specifications such as performance or functional specifications, are often preferred to input specifications, as output specifications define what the solution should be able to do. See also Quality, Acceptable, Six Sigma and Specification.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 [CCA] has replaced the requirement to provide goods and services of merchantable quality with a requirement for ‘acceptable’ quality. Acceptable quality means that the goods are fit for all the purposes for which they are commonly supplied, acceptable in appearance and finish, free from defects, safe, and durable. What is acceptable quality is determined by the nature of the goods, their price, and any statements made on packaging or representation made about the goods by the supplier. The CCA is consumer law, and affects individual transactions with a value less than $40,000.In determining whether goods are of acceptable quality, the following factors need to be considered: the nature and price of the goods, any statements made about the goods on packaging or labels, any representations made about the goods by the supplier or any other relevant circumstances relating to the supply of the goods. Accordingly, acceptable quality is a more demanding requirement than 'merchantable quality', as described in the superseded Trade Practices Act. See also Quality.

A question that is designed to obtain the answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. For example, ‘Do you have a quality policy?’ is a closed question. It is used to establish definitive facts, but does not reveal as much information as using an open question. Closed questions are favoured by software solutions that can only deal with questions with a fixed number of potential responses. See also Question, Open.

A question that invites the other party to provide an answer to a situation that does not currently exist. For example, ‘If there was a shortage of skilled engineers, how would you achieve the service levels in the agreement?’ Hypothetical questions can be useful to explore the future, and in particular situations which are conditional upon other events. For example, ‘If we agreed to pay you in 14 days instead of 30 days, how would that affect your pricing?’ See also Question, Probing.

Leading questions are questions that anticipate and invite the answer. ‘We don’t get a discount do we?’ anticipates that the answer will be ‘No!’ and might more usefully be rephrased as ‘What discount do we get?’ Asking ‘Do we get a discount?’ also invites the possibility that no discount may be applicable. See also Question, Probing.

Open questions involve the use of the words ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘when’ and ‘how’, and elicit more substantive answers than closed questions. For this reason, enquiry documents like a Request for Information often use combinations of questions to gather information. For example, ‘Do you have a quality policy?’ is a closed question, but when coupled with ‘How does your quality system ensure consistent performance standards which meet the customer’s needs?’ becomes more powerful. See also Question, Probing.

Probing questions are designed to focus on specific issues and ensure that the answer given is clear and unambiguous. For example, ‘You said that you could deliver anywhere within 24 hours; is that only during the working week or does that apply at weekends as well?’ See also Question, Closed.

Asking a series of questions without waiting for the answers. For example, ‘Can you deliver within 24 hours, do you offer an emergency delivery service, and do you use your own vehicles for delivery, or do you use a carrier?’ This is almost invariably counterproductive. Good practice is to ask each question individually and wait for the response before posing the next question; otherwise the other party may not answer all of the questions. See also Question, Probing.

A legal term, quid pro quo means ‘something for something’, or an exchange of benefits. One of the prerequisites for the creation of a contract is consideration, which is the exchange of something of value for something else of value. In most procurement situations, the supplier exchanges their services or goods for a sum of money, and the exchange of value fulfils the requirements for a bilateral contract. When bargaining, the exchange of two different negotiable variables is described as ‘knock-for-knock’ or quid pro quo. See also Consideration and Contract, Bilateral.

Refer to Request for Quotation