// ROBOTICS AND SMART FACTORIES TERM
Quality Cost
Quality cost refers to all the expenses a company incurs to prevent, detect, and fix defects in its products or services. It includes costs for good quality (prevention and appraisal) and poor quality (internal and external failures).
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
Quality Cost, in manufacturing and Industry 5.0, quantifies the total expenditure associated with achieving, assuring, and failing to achieve product or service quality, encompassing prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure costs.
BACKGROUND
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as 4IR, Industry 4.0 or the Intelligence Age, is a neologism describing rapid technological advancement in the 21st century. It follows the Third Industrial Revolution. The term was popularized in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum founder and former executive chairman, who asserts that these developments represent a significant shift in industrial capitalism.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- Cost of Quality
- CoQ
- Poor Quality Cost
- Good Quality Cost
- Quality Expenditure
USAGE NOTE
Understanding quality costs helps organizations prioritize improvement efforts and justify investments in quality initiatives.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Quality Cost.
Develops the Opcenter Quality software suite, a Quality Management System (QMS) integrated into their manufacturing operations management (MOM) portfolio. It helps manage quality planning, control, and data analysis to reduce non-conformance costs, scrap, and rework.
Provides the ETQ Reliance QMS software, a cloud-native platform designed to manage all aspects of quality, including non-conformances, corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), and supplier quality. The system provides analytics to identify trends and reduce the overall Cost of Quality.
Offers a cloud-based Smart Manufacturing Platform that includes integrated MES and QMS capabilities. It provides real-time quality control, Statistical Process Control (SPC), and full traceability to help manufacturers minimize scrap, recalls, and warranty claims, which are major components of quality cost.
Specializes in real-time Statistical Process Control (SPC) and quality intelligence software. Their platforms help manufacturers monitor processes to prevent defects before they occur, directly reducing internal failure costs like scrap and rework, and minimizing appraisal costs through targeted inspection.
A leading developer of machine vision systems, software, and sensors used for automated inspection and quality control. Their technology automates the detection of defects on production lines, reducing appraisal costs and preventing defective products from reaching customers, thereby lowering external failure costs.
Provides a manufacturing analytics platform that uses AI to analyze data from the entire production process. It identifies the root causes of quality issues, enabling manufacturers to reduce scrap, improve yield, and lower the overall cost of poor quality (COPQ).
Develops QMS software that digitizes and connects the entire product development lifecycle. The platform helps manage documents, training, audits, and CAPAs to ensure compliance and systematically reduce failures, directly impacting all four categories of quality cost.
Develops an AI-powered manufacturing optimization platform that uses computer vision to find and fix defects. By analyzing images from assembly lines, the system identifies anomalies and helps engineers rapidly diagnose root causes, directly reducing internal failure costs like scrap and rework.