The real cost of quality

Many companies are confronted with new tools and standards for quality. How do we sort through this new blitz and what is it going to cost? The buzz words are ISO 9000, QS 9000, TQM, SQC, QOS, etc. Any successful business needs all the new ideas for continuous improvement, but the cost for ISO alone is approximately $20000 for a small 80 associate company like Bedford Materials. Bedford Materials decided to be the best in our business. Our first step in doing this was to set up a steering committee to measure where we were and determine where we needed to be in 5 years. We had to deal with many road blocks such as culture, environment safety, effective quality improvements and costs. We determined that ISO 9002 was the route for us because we observed that companies with high quality standards were successful. ISO provides a guide line for achieving high quality. It took us one year from the time the steering committee was formed until we achieved ISO 9002 certification. There was a cost; but, the benefits have outweighed them. We have seen significant reductions in costs such as scrap, customer returns, and improvements in productivity. We understand better what is expected of each associate and have reduced redundant activities