MANUFACTURING QUALITY RELATED COSTS

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the process by which manufacturing can be addressed in terms of quality related costs. Every year in manufacturing companies, the potential for making or increasing profits is reduced due to machine down time, materials being wasted, inappropriate supervision/leadership, agreed delivery dates not being met, duplication of efforts, dissatisfied customers and so on. Crosby (1) has estimated that up to 20&#37; of sales turnover is lost in this way.<br> Most companies are not aware of their quality costs and therefore have not identified the various aspects of the business that contribute to quality related costs. Consequently quality cost data collection systems are not in place. In some instances, companies that do monitor quality cost data, present the outcome to senior management in some form of numerical performance indicator which.is not financially related. Subsequently, the impact of the published figures is lost resulting in senior management not grasping the significance, and often, the seriousness of the situation.<br> A case study research project is described which has been instigated in order to develop and test a procedure for the implementation of a quality related cost system.<br> As a way of providing a background to the research project, the author has cited two quality cost models from existing literature, namely the 'P-A-F Model' (Prevention, Appraisal and Failure) and the 'Process Cost Model'. The intention of this has been to provide a critical analysis of both models, thereby identifying their limitations in the process of application. A combination of this analysis and the learning experience gained during the period of the research project has led to the development of a programme for the implementation of equality related cost system. Finally, comparisons are made between the results gained from the case study and existing available published company quality related cost information.