Quality Movement
The concept of quality has changed throughout the years. Originally, it was mainly on quality control to inspect products and identify the problem. These quality control principles were introduced as statistical and mathematical techniques, sampling tables and process control charts. This problem detection method then progressed into quality assurance, which focused on problem avoidance. Quality assurance includes the cost of quality, zero-defect programs, reliability engineering and total quality control. Today the aim is more on strategic quality management and planning for the future. This includes:
- Quality is defined by the customer.
- Quality is linked with profitability on both the market and cost sides.
- Quality has become a competitive weapon.
- Quality is now an integral part of the strategic planning process.
- Quality requires an organization-wide commitment.
Project managers have the responsibility of handling projects from the very beginning and making many design decisions. In the end, the customer will define the quality. Therefore, customer demands are controlled by using the total quality management (TQM). As a result, it allows for more priority on the quality process rather than quality product. Statistical Process Control charts (SPCs) can be used to identify cause of variation. These causes are often beyond the control of the workers and must be taken care of by management. For example, if a project manager buys cheap material, then the end product won’t be good no matter who is working on it. Quality management shares equal importance to the cost and schedule management, therefore should be handled by the project manager and not lower management.
Cost of Quality
Measuring the costs of quality will tell if the product meets the customer’s requirements. This can be simplified to “the cost of conformance” and “the cost of non-conformance”.
Conformance cost:
- Training
- Indoctrination
- Verification
- Validation
- Testing
- Maintenance
- Calibration
- Audits
Non-Conformance cost:
- Scrap
- Rework
- Warranty repairs
- Product recalls
- Complaint handling
Another way to look at cost includes:
- Prevention Cost: The up-front cost that include design review, training, quality planning, surveys of vendors, suppliers, subcontractors, process studies, and related preventive activities.
- Appraisal Cost: An evaluation of product or process to see how well the customer’s requirements were met. This can include the costs of inspecting, lab test, vendor control, in-process testing and internal/external design reviews.
- Internal Failure Cost: The cost of product failure, and not accepted by the customer. This includes scrap, rework, repair, downtime, defect evaluations, evaluation of scrap and corrective actions that resulted to the failure.
- External Failure Cost: The result of the customer determining that their requires have not been met. This includes customer returns and allowances, evaluation of customer complaints, inspection at the customer, customer visits to resolve quality complaints and necessary corrective action.
7 Comments
Trisha Badlu · April 12, 2021 at 1:54 pm
This is a really well-detailed explanation Autumn! I like how you specifically point out that quality is defined by the customer. Even though it’s implied, I feel like it’s something that can easily be forgotten by project managers and this can possibly make them come up with their own definition of high quality for the project that’s the complete opposite of the customer’s definition. The cost breakdown is also helpful to understand the types of costs associated with quality and what they consist of.
Sean Kinneer · April 13, 2021 at 12:45 am
Really good post, Autumn! I like how you centered it around the different types of costs featured in quality management. It is easy to see that higher quality has higher costs. I agree with Trisha’s comment ^ on customer views of quality. Each customer has his or her own view of what is a quality item. Some are required to meet more criteria than others. Asking the customer what they expect is better for project managers to gauge potential costs for a project in development. I like your bullet point list highlighting conformance and non-conformance costs as well as the brief explanations of cost types below.
Savannah Swartzel · April 13, 2021 at 9:16 am
The cost of quality is a great topic to hit on. You don’t really think about the cost of a low-quality product like you would a higher quality one but they both take money to build.
Chris Kelly · April 13, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Nice job defining what a good quality control system looks like. I found the line “Quality is linked with profitability on both the market and cost sides” interesting since it seems like some companies intentionally release a poor quality product in order to gain profit (planned obsolesence).
Manogna Pillutla · April 13, 2021 at 4:49 pm
Good job Autumn! It is nice to fee your post focusing on cost of quality. It is interesting to see the details involved in cost of quality. I have definitely learned some new terminology and concepts on this topic today!
Henok Araya · April 13, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Great post with key information. Quality management should have a high priority in any product or service as it has the ability to make or break a business.
Brandon Kresge · April 13, 2021 at 5:08 pm
Well organized. I like the use of bullet points and covering the various costs. I think quality should be maintained and is important no matter what the service or product is.