Cost Of Quality

The cost associated with the quality of a work product.

As defined by Crosby (“Quality Is Free”), Cost Of Quality (COQ) has two main components: *Cost Of Conformance* and *Cost Of Non-Conformance* (see respective definitions).

Cost of quality is the amount of money a business loses because its product or service was not done right in the first place. From fixing a warped piece on the assembly line to having to deal with a lawsuit because of a malfunctioning machine or a badly performed service, businesses lose money every day due to poor quality. For most businesses, this can run from 15 to 30 percent of their total costs.