Quality Costing: An Examination of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions

This article reports the main findings of a survey that assessed the level of understanding of quality costing among a cross section of employees, together with their attitudes and perceptions of the concept. The organization involved in the survey designs and manufactures telecommunications equipment. The survey findings are examined under the broad headings of cost categorization and definitions; responsibility for the creation of quality costs; scale of quality costs; and employees' personal views. The researchers empirically examine issues such as the extent of confusion prevalent with quality cost categorization; employee perceptions of who causes quality problems; employee perceptions relating to the scale of quality costs; and employee attitudes regarding working for the company's benefits vis a vis their own benefit.Employee understanding of the terms associated with the prevention-appraisal-failure model was not complete. Employees displayed some confusion, particularly in relation to appraisal costs and internal failure costs. The respondents had a clearer understanding of the price of conformance and price of nonconformance concept than they had with the more traditional prevention-appraisal-failure categorization model. The surrey also revealed that some traditional altitudes persist in the organization, such as that quality can be inspected into a product and that the quality department is responsible for controlling and reducing quality costs.