Once upon a time, the word quality meant adhering to specifications. Products were in or out. Somehow, quality was considered a static science. Today, quality is an intangible but, paradoxically, far more important concept. The commitment to quality as a company cultural mindset affects not just products, but enhances the efficiency and success of the company as a whole, and its ability to act responsibly. So, what do we mean by 'quality' today? Marie-Helene Sibille, Group Vice President, Corporate Quality Systems, part of the Total Quality and Corporate Responsibility organization, explains.

"Well, perfection is the aim. But the wider concept of quality has developed to include the level of service the customer expects, and delivering the right products or services exactly when and where they are needed. It means first, and at a bare minimum, that when something goes wrong we must immediately identify the cause, act to correct it, and prevent it from happening again. But more importantly, it means positive and continuous assessment and management of risks. So it's about checks, processes, and procedures, all in one quality management system, largely based on continuous improvement, one of ST's key business principles. So the extended concept of quality is really at the heart of corporate responsibility as we understand it, in the sense of Sustainable Excellence.

Our processes to ensure quality are first aimed at fulfilling customer expectations – any kind of expectations. So, what if our customers demand, or authorities decree, that our goods are produced in line with a code of ethical conduct? This is a tangible example of where the concept of managing quality meets that of corporate responsibility. Our design and production also take account of the need to guarantee respect for people and the environment.

Here, in the corporate responsibility spectrum, we can give another recent example very relevant to ST, where regulations require we change our technology to remove lead. This involved a huge program to find new substances and new manufacturing processes so we could respect the environment and the regulation while not compromising product quality – in this case solderability – and delivery. In this example we can see how the processes evolved for monitoring quality help us meet these new CR standards. The semiconductor sector has often shown the way where quality is concerned, defining increasingly rigorous standards, for example to meet the requirements of the automotive industry, and ST has a strong track record. To stay with the example of the car, it was our automotive work that initially demanded the ever-improving quality, as for these applications, defective components may put lives at risk.

It's not easy to describe everything in terms of processes, and at first we went for quality certification on a site-by-site basis, giving flexibility locally, but then allowing diversity on the way to describe processes. Then, in 2002, we decided to change this to a global approach – that is, certifying the processes at company level. We also decided to be certified to the more stringent ISO TS 16949 standard. This standardization contributes a lot to the overall efficiency of the company, as well as to reinforcing team spirit: if some part of the company fails, the whole company is affected.

Since the early 1990s we have based our business model on the European Foundation for Quality Management's framework. This model highlights the importance of processes and enablers, while considering the necessary results for all our stakeholders. All the different subjects to be covered by a management system – quality, environment, health and safety, finance, wider corporate responsibility – are part of it with the same objective of continuous improvement. This is the ST Business Excellence model.

The challenge, of course, is the excellence, also called zero defects. But with this type of aim, quality and continuous improvement has to be not just part of company culture, but the culture itself. That's where communication of these values is important. And we have to find ways to get across what this means. Actually, the core communication about quality, for every part of the company, comes from the policy deployment and review process. Setting objectives and carrying out performance reviews and appraisals at each organizational level and for each individual are all part of the process – all employees get to see the objectives of their department and of the organization as a whole. This process is the backbone of our Total Quality culture, supported by a wide panel of training programs developed by ST University. Audits and certification are the way to measure our progress and set higher standards of quality, thus contributing to the move toward Total Quality.

So all in all, our aim as a company is to guarantee quality. What does this mean? It means everyone striving continuously for Sustainable Excellence, thus answering to customers' expectations."