Do quality costs still matter?

Abstract

Quality has been recognised by companies as a key competitive factor in order to differentiate in a globalised market. To ensure quality that meets customer requirements, companies implement management systems that enable the management to plan, control, secure, and improve the quality of goods and services. To cover these tasks sufficiently, such quality management systems require resources that need to be budgeted. Quality management critics point out again and again that quality management does not make a direct value-added contribution to a company's success and the use of funds must therefore be kept at a minimum. The success of quality management systems is therefore attempted to be measured by monetary and non-monetary indicators. Quality-related indicators, in particular, are used to control the quality management, to provide strategic and operational goal orientation, to identify the quality situation as well as weaknesses, and to enable benchmarking with other sectors or companies. In practice, this means the determination of costs, benefits, and profitability. In a cross-industry survey, the Chair of Quality Science at the Berlin Institute of Technology in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology examined the current practices of quality controlling in Germany. For this purpose, companies in the manufacturing and service industries were asked for participation. With a total of 215 respondents, the study provides a comparative overview by which indicators German companies measure the effectiveness and the efficiency of quality management systems. The study reflects a large methodological and content diversity in quality controlling.

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