Quality Management and Cost of Quality
2
CoQ Buckets
Conformance and nonconformance
7
Basic Tools
Ishikawa, Pareto, control, flow, check, histo, scatter
80/20
Pareto Rule
80% of problems from 20% of causes
every dollar not spent on prevention costs $10 on failure
Cost of Quality · Tilted Scale
Prevention
training, process
Appraisal
inspect, test, audit
Internal Failure
rework, scrap
External Failure
warranty, lawsuit
Seven Basic Quality Tools
Fishbone
cause & effect
Pareto
80/20 causes
Histogram
frequency dist.
Control
process variation
Scatter
correlation
Check Sheet
tally events
Flowchart
process map
Exam Traps
Prevention is cheaper than inspection, inspection is cheaper than failure
PMI prefers investing in prevention. Answers that skimp on prevention to "save money" are traps — they create much larger failure costs later.
Quality is not grade
Quality is the degree to which requirements are met. Grade is a category of features. A low-grade product can still be high quality if it meets its requirements.
Control chart pattern of 7 means investigate
Seven consecutive points on one side of the mean indicates special cause variation, even if all points are within control limits. This is the rule of seven.
Definition of Done is the agile quality gate
In agile, the DoD defines what "done" means. Anything that does not meet DoD is not complete, even if it looks finished. The exam tests this distinction.
Prevent over inspect
Spend on training, process, and design up front. You pay once instead of paying for rework, warranties, and recalls.
External failure is the worst
Failures found by customers cost the most — warranty, reputation, lawsuits. Internal failure is bad, external failure is catastrophic.
Teaching your bakers the recipe, buying accurate scales, writing a procedure manual. These are prevention costs. They stop bad cakes before they happen.
A quality inspector tasting each cake before it goes out. That is appraisal. It catches problems but does not prevent them.
A cake is bad and you catch it in the kitchen. You throw it out or remake it. That is internal failure — bad, but contained.
A cake goes to a wedding and ruins the event. Refund, reputation damage, lawsuit. External failure is the most expensive of all.
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