Quality of products and services has generally improved across the board in the United States. While some people don’t believe that, those are the ones with rather short term memories. I can remember when it was the norm to have to take your car back to the dealership at least two or three times during the warranty period to get all of the bugs worked out of it, and holding on to a car over 60-70,000 miles probably meant you were probably driving a clunker. My current vehicle has been back to the dealership for oil changes and other maintenance, but not for repair! My last car had 110,000 miles on it when I traded it in and the dealer was thrilled to get it because he said that model was in high demand in the used car market, and had plenty of life left in it. Even with constant exposure to “Michigan Road Rot” (road salt), I have seen extremely little rust damage on any vehicle I have driven over the last 10-20 years.
Cars are only one example of the increase in quality over the years and throughout the country. But when do we find the problems and what is the Cost of (bad) Quality? There are multiple opportunities to find problems before and after the product or service gets to the customer.
The cost to fix a problem increases exponentially the later in the development and sales cycle that it is identified. This is known as the 1-10-100 Rule.
- A problem (defect) caught in requirements phase costs a factor of 1 (1x) to fix and make mistake-proof (poka-yoke) so it will not happen again.
- A problem (defect) caught in construction or production costs 10 times as much as in requirements.
- A problem (defect) caught by the customer and has to be fixed on site or recalled costs up to 100 times as much as in requirements.
- And, a problem (defect) that results in an injury to the customer and is taken to court in a lawsuit will cost 1,000 times as much as in requirements.
A colleague of mine gave me this real example. His company produced car airbag systems. They had an extensive quality assurance and inspection program in place. One of the components was a plastic block through which the gas was forced into the airbag. This component went all the way through the system without question until an inspector on the shipping dock measured the size of the holes and discovered the holes were too small. If the airbag was triggered it would not inflate the airbag fast enough. He went on to say it would have cost them $10 to create a poka-yoke to “mistake proof” the process so the holes were the right size. It would have cost them $100 to find the problem before it left the plant and replace the faulty components. It would have cost them $1,000 to find the problem after it was shipped and recall the part. It would have cost them $10,000 to respond to a customer complaint from the manufacturing plant and fix the problem after it was installed in a car. And, it would have cost them at least $100,000 per incident to pay claims as a result a lawsuit.
In this context it makes sense to search out and identify problems as early as possible, when you are defining the requirements.
