3. The optimization of quality cost
With a view to optimization of quality costs a case study will be suggested aiming at emphasizing the structure of
the quality costs existent within an organization on the last term of 2011. For the drawing up of the study the
structure of quality costs was used based on the model of a company from bread manufacture from Romania, which
assumes to pay more attention to the 4 categories of quality costs (costs recommended by the American Society for
Quality Control):
- Prevention costs;
- Appraisal costs;
- Internal failure costs (costs of internal noncompliances identified before the product delivery);
- External failure costs (costs of external noncompliances identified after the product delivery).
There is still the tendency in literature for these 4 categories of costs to be regrouped in total quality costs divided
in turn on: costs of conformance (prevention and appraisal costs) and costs of non-conformance (costs of internal
failure and costs of external failure).
When it comes to establish the total quality costs there are some difficulties related to the fact that the accounting
system is not conceived in such a way to highlight these costs. Moreover some costs are not quantifiable, they can
only be estimated which makes the analysis of quality costs to be a subjective one.
The determination of quality costs is done considering the existent data within the company from bread
manufacture and those coming from customers; still, the main sources are: general and analytical accounting,
administrative, technical and commercial documents, the surveys done on customers, the questionnaires filled by the
specialists of the organization, etc.
Quality cost analysis can be done on products, departments or on the organization. For this study, we have chosen
the quality cost analysis on the product bread . Costs related to product quality, for the last six months of 2011, are
presented in the following table: