What is COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality)? Complete Guide for 2024

COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality) is a critical metric that allows organizations to quantify the costs incurred due to poor quality. These costs can arise from a variety of sources including rework, scrap, customer complaints, and lost business opportunities.

In today’s competitive business environment, every organization must strive to continuously improve its products and services while reducing costs. However, without an understanding of COPQ, it is impossible to make informed decisions and take targeted actions to improve.

By identifying and measuring the costs associated with poor quality, organizations can gain valuable insights into their operations and implement targeted improvement initiatives to reduce waste and increase profitability.

In this article, we will understand the concept of COPQ in detail, explore its 4 important categories, also discuss when to use the cost of poor quality, why it matters, and how to calculate it with the help of one example. So let’s get started 

What is COPQ?

Before understanding the cost of poor quality, you need to first understand what is the cost of quality. COQ refers to the total cost of all efforts made to ensure that a product or service meets the customer’s requirements and expectations.

In simple words, COQ is the total cost of making quality products or services. It is the combination of the cost of good quality and the cost of poor quality. Also divided into 4 categories prevention cost, appraisal cost, internal and external failure costs.

I will discuss these 4 categories later in this article before that let’s see what is the cost of good quality and the cost of poor quality. The COGQ is the total cost incurred to ensure that a product or service meets the customer’s requirements and expectations.

This includes prevention costs and appraisal costs, a cost that is required to prevent defects or errors from happening in the first place. While COPQ is a critical metric used in Six Sigma methodology to quantify the financial impact of poor quality on a company’s bottom line.

In simple terms, it is the cost that a company incurs as a result of producing products or services that are of poor quality. This includes internal failure costs and external failure costs.

This can include things like rework, scrap, warranty claims, product returns, and even lost business due to customer dissatisfaction. Hence the cost of quality is the addition of the cost of poor quality and the cost of good quality.

Cost of quality = Cost of Good Quality  + Cost of Poor Quality 

Cost of good quality = Prevention cost + Appraisal cost

Cost of poor quality = Internal failure cost + External failure cost

Now, you might be thinking why COPQ is so important. The answer is poor quality can have a significant impact on a company’s profitability.

For example, if a company has a high defect rate, it may need to spend more money on rework and scrap, which can eat into its product margins. Additionally, if customers are unhappy with the quality of a product or service, they may take their business everywhere, leading to lost revenue.

It is estimated that for many companies, COPQ can amount to as much as 20 to 30% of their total revenue. That’s a staggering amount of money that could be better spent on improving processes, investing in new technology, or developing new products.

The good news is that by measuring and managing the cost of poor quality, companies can identify areas where they can improve quality and reduce costs with the help of the tools and techniques of Lean Six Sigma.

By applying the Lean Six Sigma tools, organizations can systematically analyze their processes, identify areas of waste and inefficiency, and implement improvements that lead to higher quality, lower costs, and increased customer satisfaction.

Well, while it’s true that COPQ is an indicator of poor quality, it’s much more than that. Let’s see three reasons why it’s important for businesses to understand and manage their cost of poor quality.

It’s a direct reflection of your bottom line – 

The cost of poor quality is a direct reflection of the impact that poor quality is having on your bottom line. Every time you produce a defective product or service, you are incurring costs that eat away at your profits.

By tracking your cost of poor quality, you can identify areas where quality is suffering and take steps to reduce those costs, which will ultimately improve your profitability.

It helps you prioritize improvement efforts –

When you understand your COPQ, you can use that information to prioritize improvement efforts. For example, if you are spending a lot of money on rework, you might want to focus on improving your process controls to reduce the number of defects.

Or if you are experiencing a lot of customer complaints, you might want to focus on improving your customer service or product design. By focusing on the areas with the highest COPQ, you can get the biggest bang for your improvement buck.

It helps you stay competitive – 

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, quality is a key differentiator. Customers expect high-quality products and services, and they are willing to pay for them.

By managing your COPQ, and improving your quality, you can stay competitive and win more business. By reducing the cost of poor quality you can reduce your costs and potentially lower your prices, making you even more competitive.

4 Categories of COQ

There are 4 categories of cost of quality that the companies always consider while calculating COPQ. Those 4 types of categories are internal failure cost, external failure cost, appraisal cost, and prevention cost. Let’s understand them one by one with examples – 

1. Internal failure cost:

These are the cost that arises due to defects or errors that are detected before the product or service is delivered to the customer. Any defect or error that is caught during the process falls under the category of internal cost COPQ.

For example, suppose you work for a company that manufactures electronic devices. If a defect is found during the testing phase of production, the product will need to be reworked or scrapped, which can be costly.

Additionally, if the defect is not caught and the product is shipped to the customer, the company may have to issue a refund or replace the product, which can result in lost sales and damage to the company’s reputation.

These types of Internal failure costs can add up quickly and have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. These costs can include:

• Scrap and rework costs: This includes the cost of materials, labor, and equipment needed to fix defects and errors.
• Inspection costs: This includes the cost of inspecting products and services for defects and errors.
• Downtime costs: This includes the cost of production delays caused by defects and errors.

2. External failure cost:

These are the costs that arise due to defects or errors that are detected after the product or service is delivered to the customer. All the costs associated with defects that are discovered by customers fall under the category of external cost COPQ.

For example, suppose a smartphone manufacturer produces a defective batch of phones and some of those phones are sold to customers, then it can lead to external failure costs. This cost can be significant and can damage the reputation of the smartphone company.

Customers who got the defective phones are less likely to buy from the same company again, leading to a loss of future sales and revenue. External failure costs can be incredibly expensive and damaging to a company’s bottom line.

That’s why it is important to focus on prevention and appraisal costs, by catching quality issues early on you can prevent these costly external failures from happening in the first place. These external failure costs include:

• Warranty costs: This includes the cost of repairing or replacing products that are under warranty due to defects and errors.
• Customer complaint costs: This includes the cost of handling customer complaints and addressing issues with products or services.
• Loss of goodwill costs: This includes the cost of lost sales and damage to the company’s reputation due to poor quality.

3. Appraisal cost:

These are the cost that arises due to activities that are performed to ensure that products and services meet quality standards.

In simple words, all the costs incurred to identify defects or errors in a product or service before it’s released to the customer falls under the category of appraisal cost.

For example, suppose you run a manufacturing company that produces widgets. To ensure the quality of your widgets, you have a team of inspectors who perform tests on every batch of widgets before they are shipped to the customers.

The cost of paying your inspector is an example of an appraisal cost. The goal of appraisal cost is to catch any potential issues early on, so they can be corrected before the customer is impacted.

By doing so you can reduce the likelihood of defects, improve customer satisfaction and ultimately save money in the long run. The appraisal cost can include:

• Testing costs: This includes the cost of testing products and services to ensure that they meet quality standards.
• Inspection costs: This includes the cost of inspecting products and services for defects and errors.
• Auditing costs: This includes the cost of conducting an audit to ensure that quality standards are being met.

4. Prevention cost:

These are the costs that arise due to activities that are performed to prevent defects and errors from occurring in the first place. All the cost associated with preventing defects from occurring in the first place falls under the category of prevention cost.

This cost is incurred when organizations invest in measures that help eliminate the root causes of defects and prevent them from happening in the future. It is much more cost-effective to prevent defects from happening than it is to fix them later.

For example, suppose you run a manufacturing plant that produces electronic components for smartphones. One of the most critical components you produce is the battery.

If your battery has defects, the entire smartphone could be affected leading to a significant loss of revenue and damage to your company’s reputation. To prevent defects in the battery, you might invest in measures such as:

• Employee training on how to identify and address quality issues.
• Regular equipment maintenance and calibration to ensure consistent performance.
• Upgrading your production equipment to improve efficiency and reduce errors.
• Conducting frequent quality control checks throughout the production process.

All these measures would incur costs upfront, but they would help prevent defects and improve batter quality. By preventing defects, you can reduce the likelihood of returns, warranty claims, and customer complaints. The prevention costs include:

• Training costs: This includes the cost of training employees to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge needed to produce high-quality products and services.
• Design costs: This includes the cost of designing products and services with quality in mind.
• Process improvement costs: This includes the cost of improving processes to reduce the risk of defects and errors.

How to calculate COPQ?

Now you know the concept of the cost of poor quality and its 4 categories. Let’s understand the simple step-by-step procedure to calculate the cost of poor quality.

These steps are not like standard steps, they may change as per your organization’s requirements, but these simple steps can give you clarity for COPQ calculation. I will also discuss one example after understanding these steps.

Step-1: Assemble a cross-functional team:

Form a cross-functional team comprising individuals from different departments and expertise. This team will provide diverse perspectives and insights, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the process and its associated costs.

Aim for a blend of subject matter experts, data analysts, process owners, and frontline employees. So that you can get useful insights to calculate COPQ.

Step-2: Identify the types of quality costs:

The first step in implementing COPQ is to identify the types of quality costs. These costs can be divided into four categories like prevention cost, appraisal cost, internal failure cost, external failure cost, etc. I already discussed the meaning of these 4 categories earlier.

Step-3: Collect data:

The next step is to collect data on the quality costs. This can be done by analyzing the organization’s financial records, customer feedback, quality control reports, process metrics and identifying the costs associated with each of the four categories.

Ensure that the data collected is accurate, relevant, and representative of the process under consideration and all the costs associated with quality are captured.

Step-4: Calculate COPQ:

This is done by adding up all the costs associated with internal and external failure costs and dividing the total by the sum of all 4 categories of quality costs. This will give you a percentage that represents the total COPQ.

Step-5: Analyze the data:

After calculating the COPQ, analyze the data to identify the root causes of poor quality. This can be done by using tools such as Pareto charts, fishbone diagrams, and scatter plots. The goal is to identify the underlying issues that are causing the organization to incur quality costs.

Step-6: Develop Improvement plans:

Once the root causes of poor quality have been identified, then develop improvement plans. This can involve implementing new processes, training employees, or making changes to the product/process design. The goal is to reduce the number of defects & improve overall quality.

Step-7: Monitor progress:

The final step in implementing COPQ is to monitor progress. This involves tracking the organization’s quality costs over time to ensure that the improvement plans are having the desired effect.

It’s important to continue analyzing the data and making adjustments as necessary to ensure that the organization is continuously improving.

Example of COPQ calculation:

Problem Statement:

Suppose a manufacturing company produces 10,000 units of a product in a month. The company has a defect rate of 3% meaning that 300 units are defective.

The cost of reworking each defective unit is $50, and the company has to scrap 50 units every month at a cost of $100 per unit. Additionally, the company receives 20 warranty claims per month, with an average cost of $500 per claim.

Finally, the company loses 10 potential customers per month due to poor quality with an estimated revenue loss of $10,000. What should be the cost of poor quality for this company?

Solution:

Total defective units – 300

COPQ = Internal failure cost + External failure cost 

• Cost of rework = 300 defective units × $50 per unit = $15,000
• Cost of scrap = 50 defective units into scrap × $100 per unit = $5,000
• Cost of warranty claims = 20 warranty claims × $500 per claim = $10,000
• Lost of revenue = 10 customer loss × $10000 per customer = $100,000

Internal failure cost = Cost of rework + Cost of scrap = $15,000 + $5,000 = $20,000

External failure cost = Cost of warranty claims + Lost of revenue = $10,000 + $100,000 = $110,000

Total cost of poor quality = $20,000 + $110,000 = $130,000

In this example, the total COPQ for this company would be $130,000 per month, which represents a significant financial impact on the business. 

By identifying and addressing the root cause of poor quality, the company can reduce the cost of poor quality and improve its bottom line. That’s how you can calculate the cost of poor quality for a given scenario. 

Benefits of measuring COPQ

• By measuring the cost of poor quality organizations can reduce the number of defects and improve the quality of products and services, which then increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Measuring COPQ can help organizations identify areas of waste in their processes and take steps to eliminate them, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
• By measuring COPQ organizations can make data-driven decisions about where to invest resources to improve the quality of products and reduce costs.
• By measuring the cost of poor quality, organizations reduce the costs associated with rework, scrap, warranty claims, and customer complaints. Which then improves the product quality by reducing the number of defects.
• COPQ measurements help organizations produce high-quality products or services at lower costs than their competitors and This improved competitiveness helps organizations successful in the marketplace.

Effective ways to reduce COPQ

Now you understand how to calculate the cost of poor quality and the benefits of measuring the cost of poor quality for your organization. Let’s see some of the effective ways to reduce the cost of poor quality.

• Focus on identifying the root causes of quality issues. Conduct a thorough analysis of the root causes of quality issues to determine their underlying factors. Use tools like fishbone diagram, 5 why, and Root cause analysis to identify the root cause of defects.
• Implement statistical process control at your organization. SPC helps organizations to monitor and control their processes to detect any variations or changes that may lead to quality issues.
• This approach allows you to identify issues before they become critical and take corrective actions immediately.
• Use Standard Work practices at your workplace. Standard work is a set of guidelines that define how work should be done in a consistent and repeatable way. This approach helps to eliminate variations in the process & ensure that the output meets the required quality standards.
• Your organization must focus on continuously improving processes to ensure that processes are operating at maximum efficiency and quality. This involves setting improvement goals, regularly monitoring progress, and making adjustments as needed.
• Use Lean tools like Value Stream Mapping, 5s workplace organization, Poka-yoke, and Kaizen to identify and eliminate waste in the processes, thereby improving quality and reducing COPQ.
• Employee involvement and empowerment are essential to reduce COPQ. Employees who are involved in process improvement initiatives tend to be more invested in the success of the organization and are more likely to identify quality issues and suggest solutions.

By using these effective ways any organization can reduce the cost of poor quality and improve overall product quality, which then increases customer satisfaction and profitability. (Join us for – Lean Six Sigma Green belt training course)

Conclusion

COPQ serves as a powerful framework for organizations to uncover the hidden cost of poor quality and optimize their processes. By embracing Lean Six Sigma tools, organizations tackle quality-related issues and reduce the cost of poor quality and drive sustainable improvements.

Managing and reducing COPQ is not just a cost-saving endeavor, it is a strategic imperative that fuels operational excellence and positions organizations for long-term success in today’s dynamic and demanding marketplace.

Throughout the article we discussed the Cost of poor quality in detail including its 4 categories, how to calculate it step by step, and some of the effective ways to reduce COPQ. Hope you understood this important concept with this comprehensive guide.

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