Difference between Quality and Grade
Last updated: November 04, 2022 Read in fullscreen view
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The terms "quality" and "grade" are often used interchangeably. In this post, let's understand the difference between these two terms
Difference Between Quality And Grade
Quality is an attribute that describes how well something works. It is often measured by its performance against specifications. In contrast, the grade is a measure of the relative value of different products or services.
What Is Quality?
Quality is the degree to which a product or service meets customer expectations at any given time. A quality system focuses on meeting those expectations to maintain or improve customer satisfaction.
The formal definition of quality as per ISO 9000 2015 is:
"Quality: degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements".
What Is A Grade?
Think of grade as a category of the product. Different grades of the products have the same functional use but different technical characteristics.
Here is the formal definition of grade according to ISO 9001 2015:
Grade: "category or rank given to different requirements for an object having the same functional use". Example: Class of airline ticket and category of hotel in a hotel brochure.
Examples
For example, a $1 Raymond pen and $1000 Montblanc pen are both used to write. As long as both are serving this purpose satisfactorily, both have good quality.
However, the Montblanc pen is a separate category of luxury products. Hence it is a different grade or product.
So next time, when you have to compare the quality of the $1 Raymond pen and $1000 Montblanc pen, don't say that the Montblanc pen is of better quality. It is just a different grade or category. You can not compare apples and oranges.
Also, high grade does not imply high quality.
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