УТОЧНЕННЯ СУТНОСТІ КАТЕГОРІЇ «ЯКІСТЬ»

At the current stage of the development of the national and world economy, the problem of the quality of products and services, as well as the functioning of enterprises in general, has become particularly relevant, which is caused by the action of the objective economic laws of the development of society. The effectiveness and efficiency of the functioning of business entities largely depend on the level of quality they achieve, which ensures their competitiveness in a highly dynamic business environment. All of the above attracted the attention of scientists and practitioners, which led to the appearance of a significant number of works on this problem. However, the results of the study of the scientific literature indicate the existence of differences in the views of scientists regarding the theoretical, methodological, methodical and practical aspects of the quality problem. This complicates the process of quality management, makes it impossible to form an effective approach to improving quality in existing business conditions. Therefore, further thorough research is necessary, first of all, of the essence of this category, which will make it possible to form a theoretical basis for this problem in the future. By conducting a theoretical analysis, systematization and generalization of existing scientific and regulatory provisions, the essence of the category "quality" was clarified. Philosophical, social, ecological, technical, economic and legal positions regarding the essence of the "quality" category, as well as provisions of international and domestic standards of the ISO series, were applied in the research process. It was established that quality is the result of compliance of the object's own characteristics with the requirements that constantly progress and shape these own characteristics. The reasons for changing the requirements for the object can be not only the influence of environmental factors on them, but also the influence of the object's own characteristics. This interpretation of the essence of the "quality" category is, in our opinion, more complete compared to those available in the scientific literature. It reflects two sides of quality: as a result of meeting requirements with the object's own characteristics and as a result of forming the object's own characteristics according to progressive requirements. In addition, the interpretation of quality in the proposed edition makes it possible to form an approach to ensuring and improving quality - as a continuous process, on the one hand, meeting requirements that are constantly changing (progressing) by the object's own characteristics, on the other hand, as improving its own characteristics of the object based on the discovery of new, more complex (progressive) requirements.