Quality-Cost Tradeoff

The balance between the cost of achieving quality and the cost of poor quality.

• Prevention Costs: Costs to prevent defects (training, maintenance).
• Appraisal Costs: Costs to detect defects (testing, inspections).
• Internal Failure Costs: Defects found before the customer (rework, scrap).
• External Failure Costs: Defects found by the customer (warranty, recall).