In 2011, Sipho Tjabadi, general manager, Eskom Quality Management, South Africa, spoke at the ASQ Audit Division Conference. To punctuate his keynote address, Tjabadi brought a video titled, “The Cost of Quality.” For seven minutes the audience was transfixed while several quality failures were presented, root causes offered, and total cost in materials (and, too often, life) were calculated on screen. After the conference the video was posted to the Audit Division website, where it continues to be a popular page.

The video powerfully illustrates cost of quality. But what does cost of quality really mean? To answer the question, let’s take a step back. Define quality. Take a moment to ponder.