The Costs of Quality Control

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, while quality has turned Japan into a market leader in various fields, continuous improvement may not exactly be a sound approach because of the costs involved. The author states that Juran believes there exists an optimum level of quality, beyond which there could be declining marginal returns; thus, no attempt should be made to improve quality further once this level has been achieved. The paper relates that Taguchi's approach, known as quality loss function, states that the loss to society and producers increases when the quality level deviates from a specific target: The wider the difference between ideal and reality, the greater will be the loss to society. Tables.

Table of Contents
Prevention Costs
Appraisal Costs
Internal Failure Costs
External Failure Costs
Relationship between Quality Cost Categories

From the Paper:

"Joseph Juran first popularized this concept in 1950s, but it was challenged by another quality theorist Crosby who maintained that quality was free. However, Juran has repeatedly advocated in-depth analysis of quality related costs as he believes that rising quality costs could result in lower overall revenues. "Because the main language of [corporate management] was money, there emerged the concept of studying quality-related costs as a means of communication between the quality staff departments and the company managers." Realizing that quality costs could sometimes be a burden on the company and were thus important to pay attentions to, he separated these costs into four distinct categories. These categories focus on each area of quality control and make it clear for companies to determine where which areas can impact their sales profits the most."

More papers on The Costs of Quality Control:

• Research Paper # 110956 : "The Problem of Heart Disease"
• Persuasive Essay # 108575 : "Healthcare Costs"
• Essay # 53315 : "Quality Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: