THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY IN CONSUMER GOODS

COMPANY: DEODORANT ANTIPERSPIRANT

Fullname Vania Alodia Nasution
Student ID 2514 100 134
Email alodia.vania14@mhs.ie.its.ac.id
Quality is a very common word used by everyone on their regular basis. Being widely
used, do people have a complete understanding about quality? Before discussing it into more
details, lets start with the definition of quality. Experts have different perspective about
quality definition. According to Montgomery (2008), quality definition can be categorized
into traditional and modern definition. In traditional definition, Quality means fitness for
use. This term covers quality of design and quality of conformance aspects. In design aspect,
there are variations in the level of quality of products and services. These variations are
created to fulfill different needs of each individual. On the other hand, The quality of
conformance is how well the product conforms to the specifications required by the design.
Unfortunately, this traditional definition is more dominated by conformance aspect, thus, the
modern definition emerged. In modern definition, quality is the opposite of variability. This
means if a company produces products with high variability, the quality will be decreased.
Other definition of quality according to Broh (1982) is the degree of excellence at an
acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost. If we see the definitions
above, quality has different meanings and it depends on which area we see (manufacturing,
customer, product, value, etc). To make it simpler quality is the level in which a product can
satisfy customer requirements by lowering the variability to reduce the cost.
The story behind quality began in the late 13th century in Europe. At that time, there
were unions called guilds which consist of craftsmen across the Europe. Strict rules were
developed by these guilds to ensure the quality of products and services. Other than rules,
there is also the inspection process which indicated by a special mark on the flawless product.
Guilds of medieval Europe last until the early 19th century. After that, quality continued to
develop and new systems were discovered with the help of quality gurus foundations. Some
examples of this development are quality function deployment, ISO 9000, six sigma, and so
forth. These methods are now used in many companies around the world, including Consumer
Goods Company.
Consumer goods are products that are frequently used by the average consumers to
satisfy their needs. It may be categorized into different form, from food, clothing and even
hygiene product. Each of these products has their own quality dimensions. The purpose of
these dimensions is mainly to describe the quality of a product and can be used as an
evaluation for improvement. According to Garvin (1987), there are eight components of
quality dimensions, which are: performance, reliability, durability, serviceability, aesthetics,
features, perceived quality, and conformance to standards. To make it clearer, lets take an
example of body care product which is deodorant. What are the quality dimensions of a stick
deodorant?
1. Performance
This dimension refers to a products main operating characteristics. Will the
product perform its job and how well? For a deodorant, performance would
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2.

3.

4.

5.

include characteristics like the ability to neutralize odor, some deodorants which
also combined with antiperspirant would have the characteristics such as sweat
controlling. Other than that, how long a deodorant can give its protection is also
considered as the performance.
The example is Rexona, a deodorant antiperspirant brand. It claims to overcome
body odor and sweating for 48 hours.
Reliability
Reliability is the probability of a product will perform its required functions within
specified time period. For deodorant antiperspirant, formula plays an important
role to ensure its reliability. Each person body has its own mechanism, it also
reacts differently with different product. A person may fit with specific brand of
deodorant antiperspirant and one may fit with various brands. A person may only
need a little amount of product to give protection against body odor and sweat for
full day, others may need to reapply the product. In this case, reliability of
deodorant antiperspirant is very subjective.
Durability
Durability can be defined as the amount of a products life before it degenerates. In
this case, customers obviously want their product to have a long effective life. In
consumer goods, customers are able to easily know the life limit of a product just
by looking at the expiration date. However, it is a completely different story for a
deodorant. According to Susan Raffy, a cosmetic chemist and the owner of
cosmetics consulting firm, the ingredients in deodorant are stable so they dont
degenerates that much over time. Although most cosmetics manufacturers
recommend discarding their products 12 months after opening due to the growth of
bacteria in the product, deodorants have anti-bacteria formula. Thus, the risk of
harming the skin would be very low. But, again, the decision for using deodorant
after expiration date is a matter of personal preference.
Another characteristic for durability is the amount of time needed for a deodorant
before it runs out. It has a strong relation with the performance, in terms of its
protection (how long does a deodorant give its protection). Some deodorants are
able to give 12 hours of protection, while others are able to give 48 hours of
protection. The latter obviously would last longer than deodorant with 12 hours of
protection. In this case, the expected life of a 20 grams stick deodorant is about a
month.
Serviceability
Serviceability deals with the time needed for a product to be repaired. In deodorant
and antiperspirant product it is less applicable since the consumer cannot directly
repair the product. However if we see it in a broader aspect, which is the customer
complaint, serviceability may deals with the time needed for a company to
response complaints from customers.
Aesthetics
This dimension is very subjective, because the visual appearance of a product and
its other sensory features (smells, tastes, sounds, etc) are a matter of personal
preference. For deodorants, aesthetics dimension would rely on its visual
appearance, smells, and textures to differentiate one product with others. Visual
appearance of a product covers the packaging aspect and design. For smells, each
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deodorant has their own smells ranging from powdery mild to fruity and
refreshing. While for the textures, deodorant comes in different form such as spray,
stick, liquid (roll-on), and soft solid.
6. Features
Features are the supporting aspect of performance. A product can be said to have
features when it is able to do its job beyond the basic performance. For example,
the performance of deodorant antiperspirant is to neutralize odor and control
sweat. But company, such as Unilever, often add more features to their deodorants
such as whitening, differences in fragrance, stain control, etc. Here are the
examples of features in Rexona deodorant

Figure 1 Different Features in Rexona Products

7. Perceived quality
Customers often rely to the reputation of the company when it comes to choosing a
particular product. This reputation comes from an analogy that the quality of new
products is the same with the quality of the previous products. For deodorant,
Rexona continuously do innovation which make them easier to launch new
products. When new products are launched, people directly accentuate the
products performance even though it is still not proven. This happens because
Rexona already has good reputation in the market.
8. Conformance to standards
Conformance to standards basically covers the degree of conformance a product
has to meet the particular requirements made by the designer. These requirements
are set so that all of the products produced within the specified range (tolerances).
In deodorant, the standards are dimensions, weight, packaging, safety, and
efficacy. Because deodorant is categorized as drugs, the safety and efficacy
standards are the most important aspects to ensure the quality. For safety, the
requirements are in the form of several levels of testing such as irritation potential
test, contact sensitization test, photo dermatitis test, and toxicity test. While for the
efficacy, antiperspirants must reduce at least 20% amount of perspiration.
After knowing all the quality dimensions, it is important for a company to identify
their customer needs in developing new products. These needs will later be translated into
minimum performance requirements. The tool for translating the needs is called Critical to
Quality (CTQ). It is basically a diagram consists of three different levels which are needs,
driver, and requirements. In the level of needs, company finds out what the basic requirements
of product and service are. Then, they evaluate the quality of a product by identifying its
quality driver. One of the methods to determine quality driver is by using Kano Model. This
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model is developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano in 1980s, according to him, a product or services can
have three types of attributes which are: threshold, performance, and delighter. The threshold
attributes is the characteristics that must be present in a product or service. Performance
attribute is not really essential, but the better company in meeting these standards, the
customers enjoyment is also increasing. While for delighter, the customers usually not
expecting the characteristics to be in their products but they received it as a bonus. And the
last step in creating CTQ tree is identifying the performance requirements. In this step, the
company has to identify the minimum performance requirements for each quality driver.
The implementation of CTQ can also be implemented in deodorant antiperspirant
products. Critical need of deodorant antiperspirant is good protection against body odor and
sweat. The quality driver of this need can be identified by using Kano Model. Here is the list
of characteristics:
Table 1 Table of Deodorant Antiperspirant Characteristics and its Attributes

Characteristic

Attribute

Odor neutralizing
Sweat controlling
Fragrance
Long-lasting
Safety

Threshold
Threshold
Performance
Performance
Threshold

All of these characteristics are plotted to the CTQ tree below:

Odor
Neutralizin
g
Sweat
Controlling

Good
protection
against body
odor and
sweat

Fragrance

Able to kill 90% of bacteria which

cause odor
Cut back sweat by 30%
Pass sensitivity
test
Variation in scents

Longlasting

Safety

Able to give protection for 48

hours
Requires only 2 swipes for each
usage
Pass the irritation, toxicity,
photo dermatitis test

Figure 2 Critical to Quality Tree of Deodorant Antiperspirant

Based on this CTQ diagram of deodorant antiperspirant, the need of good protection
against body odor and sweat from the customer are translated into seven requirements
presented above. By using this method, company will have a comprehensive list of minimum
requirements to help delivering high quality products for the customers.

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After having a list of requirements, company can directly go to the production process.
The production process of deodorant antiperspirant can be divided into three main steps which
are batching, filling, and finishing operations. In the batching process, active ingredients,
gelling agents, and other ingredients such as fragrances, whitening ingredients, etc, are
combined in a stainless steel container. These ingredients are being mixed and melted by
using steam with the temperature of 75C. During this process, it is very essential to control
the temperature to avoid scorching waxy ingredients. Before moving on to the filling process,
sample products are taken into laboratory to perform several tests. Because deodorant
antiperspirant is categorized as personal care products, it is important to follow the strict
quality control standards. The tests vary, starting from safety, efficacy, viscosity, and other
material properties tests such as thermal and physical stress. The next process is filling
process. Before continues to the filling stations, containers of each deodorant are dispensed by
other large container and arranged into the right direction by using rotating machine. These
containers move along the other rotating wheels system where the molten mixture is
dispensed through a filling nozzle. After that, the products move to the finishing process.
Several processes are conducted to ensure the surface smoothness and there is no air trapped
inside. Next, these products continue to the refrigeration tunnel to solidify the mixture and cap
is inserted to complete the whole processes. Lastly, these deodorant antiperspirants pass
through the cleaning stations and ready to be shipped.
In the production process of deodorant antiperspirant, quality obviously has an
important role to ensure the products have met companys standards by minimizing its
variability. Quality covers all of the processes from raw materials to the packaging. In raw
materials, the purchasing team has to ensure that the raw materials used are safe and meet the
quality requirements. In this case, the ingredients used are aluminum zirconium
tetracholorhydrex glycine, waxy materials such as hydrogenated castor oil or glyceryl
stearate, lubricating oils and emollients such as cyclomethicone, and other ingredients such as
fragrance, talc, or even whitening agent. In the process, quality control team has to check
whether the products have passed strict test or not. This will ensure products safety (irritation
potential, toxicity, sensitization, etc) and its mechanical properties such as hardness, viscosity,
etc. While for the packaging, company has done research on how to make the packaging more
convenient and aesthetic to the customers, thats why the packaging of deodorant
antiperspirant comes in different colors and shape. All of these product qualities often related
with customer satisfaction. This leads to customer loyalty and companys reputation. By
knowing quality dimensions and implementing methods such as CTQ before executing the
production process, the company will have a firm guidance that results in the minimization of
product recalls, complaints, or even poorly constructed products.
.............................................................................
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