Quality Improvement Trends in Communication Technologies Companies Using the TL 9000 Quality Management System

DALLAS, May 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- QuEST Forum will release its third report in the series on the state of communications quality May 18 at the TIA 2011: Inside the Network conference, May 17 – 20 in Dallas, Texas. The study over a two year period from July 2008 to June 2010 focuses on the return rates for the Wireless product family.

Highlights of the study include:

• For the Wireless product family, there was a 21% decrease in hardware returns for the Early Return Index measurement.
• For the Year-One Return Rate (YRR) measurement, there was a 35% improvement in hardware returns. Also, for YRR, the studied Wireless product categories had a Best In Class performance of approximately 0.5%, the Monthly Average performance was in the 1 to 2% range, and the Worst In Class ranged from 1 to 4%.
• There was also an 80% improvement or decrease in the Long-Term Return Rate measurement for the Wireless product family.

During the period studies, return rates broadly decreased (i.e. improved) across the Wireless product family and the linear average improved for each of the measurements examined.  TL 9000 certified organizations are required to use the TL 9000 benchmarking data to continually evaluate and improve their performance and it is logical to conclude that the availability of this third party audited data accelerated their improvement.  While it can be surmised that the industry overall was bolstered by the improvement of the TL 9000 registered organizations, the data only substantiates that the companies using the TL 9000 QMS improved.

To obtain a complete copy of the report, please visit the TL 9000 website at www.tl9000.org or download via the following link. http://tl9000.org/pdrs/documents/WirelessReturnRateIndustryReport2011_8.5x11.pdf

Formed in 1998, QuEST Forum is a unique collaboration of communications service providers and suppliers across the world dedicated to improving operational performance and supply chain quality and performance.  QuEST Forum unifies the global communications community through the implementation of TL 9000, a telecom-specific quality management system that is built on ISO 9001 and the eight quality principles.

SOURCE QuEST Forum