Cost of Quality: Is It Worth It?

Have you ever sat down as a quality minded engineer and honestly thought about all the different costs that go into delivering a high quality product to your customer? If you have then you are aware that quality is much more than just visually inspecting a part every thirty pieces, once per day or every changeover. You are aware that in order to guarantee high quality you need to consider preventative costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, external failure costs and intangible costs and believe it or not these costs all add up. They can even add up so much that your costs required to produce a high quality product to your consumer may outweigh the products overall value or your profit. So now consider are all these precautionary measures and costs necessary to produce a product that will fly off the shelves and into the arms of every consumer on the market. Its every salesman's dream and you have that capability. So now ask yourself is it still worth the all the costs even at a minimum gain? In my opinion the answer is simple and is a big fat YES!!!!

Think of it in the eyes of the consumer. If you plan on spending a decent amount of money on a single product for example lets say $100 or more don't you assume that what you are paying for is worth the money, wait in line, risk of consumption and also effort or time. Is it not a product that you must have based on reviews and technology and other innovative aspects  If so then why would you want to purchase a product at such a high cost and expect it to be thrown away in a weeks time or less? The answer is simple you wouldn't. So as an engineer why would you not consider these quality costs necessary to keep your customers happy and coming back to by the next latest greatest product in every color, shape and size you can place on the market.

In conclusion my opinion in the worth of quality costs is great even if it costs you more on the front end. Overall I believe that it is much more important to gain a great relationship with your customer for your product or service then to insult them by supplying lackluster items for the use, consumption and a quick disposal.

-SW

The President and PDSA

What if the presidential candidates used PDSA? Would things be any better because of it? We all know that PDSA is a great way of solving problems, but would it work on the economy, or other problems our country has? It seems to me that it would be worth a shot. Especially since during the process there is a lot of planning that would be involved in making the right decision. It has got me thinking because of all the ads on TV for the election, and because of all the debates going on.

We all know how the rest of the schedule goes in PDSA, but I was just curious as to how it might work in that sort of atmosphere, or if they have their own version of it, or what. It works in manufacturing and industry, so why wouldn't it work in politics? I think if they took the right approach, it might be able to help out. I'm not saying they are going to balance the national debt, but maybe start out with something small to see if it works and move up from there.
-OE