Presenting a Conceptual Model OF product quality factors in customer and the manufacturer's view Using the Meta-synthesis Method

Product quality often implies attempts made to exceed customer expectations in the production of goods or provision of services, and incorporates various facets such as conformance, reliability, stability, price, taste and beauty. Product quality includes three variables: design quality, conformance quality and application quality. The present study was an attempt to offer a new classification of product quality factors with respect to three quality variables and provide an interpretive structural model of the quality factors using Meta-synthesis study. The present study falls into the category of applied studies in terms of objective and into the category of qualitative studies in terms of methodology. In the qualitative phase, the meta-synthesis method is used to systematically review 66 researches on product quality factors which have been conducted in 2000 – 2023 interval. The population of the study in the qualitative phase included all valid domestic and foreign researches available in scientific databases. In the Delphi technique, a survey form was used to elicit the opinion of 10 industry and university experts to validation of product quality factors. According to the findings of the study, 40 open codes and 6 axial codes including "management factors", "resources (employees-infrastructure-environment)", "product design and development", "customer focus", "marketing and sales" and "product standardization" were identified as the principal product quality factors.