Traditionally, the beginning of a new year is a time of renewed energy, when people and businesses strive to improve upon the previous year and take stock of their processes. What’s working and what’s not working? Above all, what needs to change?

Do you collect quality data to catch problems on the production floor—but then never look at that data again? If so, you could be missing an opportunity to reap big rewards from your quality-improvement efforts.

Almost 30 years ago the Construction Industry Institute (CII) researched the “Costs of Quality Deviations in Design and Construction,” and concluded that, “The average cost of rework on industrial projects exceeds 12%.” Design deviations accounted for about 80% of the increased cost and construction deviations only 20%.

In 2011, Sipho Tjabadi, general manager, Eskom Quality Management, South Africa, spoke at the ASQ Audit Division Conference. To punctuate his keynote address’s points, Tjabadi brought a video titled “The Cost of Quality.”

Albert Einstein is widely credited as having defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” 

Cost of quality is often misunderstood, improperly measured, and underutilized.

In automotive manufacturing, reducing quality costs can be like trying to bail out a leaking boat. You can empty bucket after bucket over the side, but you can’t get above water until you plug the leaks themselves.

Too often users of precision measuring instruments and gages end up with the wrong equipment and don’t find out until it’s too late. ‘Too late’ means after rejects are detected by in-house measurements or in worst case scenarios, by their customer.

Picture a plant that requires inspectors, a team of rework staff, and a large area devoted to parts that need rework.

Many companies have established incoming inspection to measure, evaluate, or audit purchased components and raw material to ensure conformance to quality standards and performance requirements.