Have you ever purchased something cheap for the sake of saving money, only to have it come back and bite you?

Quality costs do not involve simply upgrading a perceived value of a product, or the price of creating a quality product; but the creation and delivery of a product or service that meets expectations.

The purchase of a car is a good analogy; if you spend less on a vehicle, you don’t expect all the trimmings like leather seats or air conditioning etc, that come with the higher spend. But you still expect the car to be reliable - quality being a car that functions, rather than a luxury experience.

The costs of doing a quality job, or conducting quality improvements, must be carefully managed, they determine the long-term effect!

What is the cost of quality?

This is most often associated with, or applied to, the manufacture of products. It’s helpful to look at it as the prevention of poor quality; the appraisal of an organisations output in products or services; and the way they’re influenced by our input.

It is valuable to apply the same process to any private or business expenditure. Determine how your resources are used, is it going to result in an activity that prevents poor quality, or, for perhaps short-term gain – an inferior finish.

A product or service that lasts less time means further precious capital resource is expended to upgrade or patch up, in a shorter period of time. Carefully allocating your resource may mean spending a little more at an initial stage, to maintain or create the finish or the product offering you require. If you are able to control the outcome by your initial input, you become a valuable, influential team player. Are you setting enough aside for your infrastructure maintenance?

What is the cost of poor quality?

We have to measure the costs associated with this. The ability to stand up to the test of use and time or defect costs, also affecting the longevity of a product. These in turn can increase your attention time, when you have to apply corrective measures; and of course, your money resource.

Of course, paying a higher price doesn’t always mean a better quality.

And this means you have to analyse what outcome you want. If you’re responsible for the purse, you’re responsible to analyse where the contents go. It is good practise to go through a justifying process, to ensure your budget is spent wisely and well.

Case studies can reveal where corners have been cut, mostly unwittingly, and the result is more outlay in less than half the time a quality result would give. If carried out in line with your vision in the first place, would reduce further outlay of funds to remedy defects. We all need money to set aside for improvement, upgrade or repair of another part of a building or establishment, or enable equipment to be purchased that can advance our establishment.

It most often comes down to investing time for planning, material and product study, product reliability. To get the finish you want, you want to look for the assurance that your expenditure is going to meet up to your expectations. Do they conform to your specification?

What is the price of non-conformance?

If you need help detecting the costs one way of the other, you need a trusted adviser. Prevention is better than cure! The mitigation of quality issues can greatly increase your profitability and level of staff or customer retention, look at it carefully.