Relevance of Quality

Quality is not a commodity that can be plug & played. Its a system that works well only when there is a continuous drive across the company. 

Irrespective of the ups and down of the market, the end customer will never want a hit on the quality. It would be similar to a doctor using used needles and blades just because the market is down. The patient will never ever trust the doctor and there is no way that the reuse of the blades etc would help in the recovery of the patient.

Quality also needs to be looked at from the same perspective. Going for certifications, assessments etc are big spending activities that would aid in market popularity and qualify to get more projects, but irrespective of that, the company would still have to maintain internal quality if they have to satisfy their internal and external customers.

The investment in Quality during these times can be limited to enhancing internal systems and processes and can go a bit slow on external assessments. Just the focus internally will ensure that the external assessments can happen faster and smoother once the budget for these assessments (once the market is better) is obtained.