Content area
Full Text
Keywords
Total quality management, Quality assurance, Cost of quality, Cost/benefit analysis, Turkey
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to determine the quality costs in ISO-9000-certified business organisations deriving from the application of the standards. In the beginning, the quality costs in implementing ISO-9000 are investigated. The importance of the quality cost system is emphasised. Then, a quality cost system is proposed and quality cost analysis is performed on ISO-9000-certified Turkish companies. To determine the quality cost data, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to the selected companies. Collected quality costs data were then analysed using a number of analysis methods.
Introduction
In the early days of quality management, quality costs were regarded as the cost of scrap, rework, inspection plus the costs of running the quality department. The definition and importance of quality costs changed the total quality management perceptions. The first attempt at a scientific approach to quality costs was made in the 1950s. It was Juran who brought out his perception about quality costs, and he made it clear that quality cost is not the cost of running a quality department. His view was that there are costs that could be avoided at a reasonable expense and ones that it is economically inefficient to avoid (Hwang and Aspinwall, 1999, p. 950).
In the 1950s, the quality costs were classified into four main categories by some scientists (Feigenbaum, 1983; Juran and Gryna, 1993; Masser, 1957) as prevention, appraisal, internal failure and external failure costs. Internal failure costs are associated with reworking or scrapping the nonconforming units before they are shipped to the customers. External failure costs are incurred after the products are delivered to the customer, such as warranties and litigation costs. Appraisal costs (also called inspection costs) are incurred by identifying defective products to determine the degree of conformance to product specifications. Prevention costs are related to the efforts to prevent non-conformance expenditures.
In 1967 the American Society for Quality Control presented Feigenbaum's work in a more systematic approach, publishing Quality Costs - What and How. Another approach to give directions on how to measure and use quality costs was the publication of the BS 6143 guide (BS 6143-2, 1990) to the determination and use of quality-- related...