Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)

Failure cost is internal plus external losses; total cost of quality also includes prevention and appraisal.

This selection changes review context only. Formulas and example inputs stay unchanged. Check the model assumptions and applicability for the actual process.

Identify the actual asset, process, work boundary, source documents, units and assumptions. Confirm that the selected model or template applies before using its results.

1 Inputs

Minimum: 0

Minimum: 0

Minimum: 0

Minimum: 0

Minimum: 1

2 Results

Total cost of quality
$260,000/yr
Failure cost (COPQ)
$200,000
Total CoQ % of sales
13%
Failure % of sales
10%
Prevention : failure
1 : 10
CoQ = I + E + A + P; COPQ = I + E
Failure cost is internal plus external losses; total cost of quality also includes prevention and appraisal. Keep categories exclusive. Trend each component against sales and prioritise recurring failure causes using recorded evidence.

Worked example

Example values are illustrative. Replace them with your measured data.

InputValue
Internal failure (scrap + rework)120000 $/yr
External failure (warranty + returns)80000 $/yr
Appraisal (inspection + testing)40000 $/yr
Prevention (training + improvement)20000 $/yr
Annual revenue / sales2000000 $/yr

Total cost of quality: $260,000/yr

Related tools

About this calculator

How it works

You enter internal failure (scrap, rework), external failure (warranty, returns), appraisal (inspection, testing) and prevention (training, improvement) costs, plus annual revenue. Cost of poor quality = internal + external. Total cost of quality adds appraisal and prevention. Both are shown as a percentage of sales, with the prevention-to-failure ratio.

Worked example (illustrative inputs)

$120,000 + $80,000 = $200,000 failure cost, 10% of $2,000,000 sales. Total = $260,000, 13% of sales. Prevention to failure = 20,000 : 200,000 = 1 : 10.

How to read the result

The tool marks total cost of quality below 5% of sales as good, 5–15% as a warning and above 15% as poor; failure cost below 3% is good. A prevention ratio below 0.3 of failure cost is flagged.

When to use it

Use it to put a dollar figure on quality losses and to argue for moving spend from failure into prevention. Pull each category from the same period of your accounts.

À propos de ce calculateur

Traduction (brouillon) — à relire.

Fonctionnement

Vous saisissez les coûts de défaillance interne (rebuts, retouches), de défaillance externe (garantie, retours), d'évaluation (inspection, essais) et de prévention (formation, amélioration), plus le chiffre d'affaires annuel. Coût de non-qualité = interne + externe. Le coût total de la qualité ajoute évaluation et prévention. Les deux sont exprimés en % des ventes, avec le ratio prévention/défaillance.

Exemple chiffré (valeurs d'illustration)

120 000 $ + 80 000 $ = 200 000 $ de défaillances, soit 10 % de 2 000 000 $ de ventes. Total = 260 000 $, 13 % des ventes. Prévention/défaillance = 20 000 : 200 000 = 1 : 10.

Lire le résultat

L'outil juge un coût total de la qualité sous 5 % des ventes bon, de 5 à 15 % en alerte et au-delà de 15 % faible ; un coût de défaillance sous 3 % est bon. Un ratio de prévention inférieur à 0,3 du coût de défaillance est signalé.

Quand l'utiliser

Utilisez-le pour chiffrer les pertes qualité et plaider pour déplacer les dépenses de la défaillance vers la prévention. Prenez chaque catégorie sur la même période comptable.

حول هذه الحاسبة

ترجمة (مسودة) — للمراجعة.

طريقة الحساب

تُدخل تكاليف الفشل الداخلي (الخردة، إعادة العمل) والفشل الخارجي (الضمان، المرتجعات) والتقييم (الفحص، الاختبار) والوقاية (التدريب، التحسين)، إضافةً إلى الإيرادات السنوية. تكلفة سوء الجودة = الداخلي + الخارجي. وتضيف تكلفة الجودة الكلية التقييم والوقاية. وتُعرض كلتاهما كنسبة من المبيعات مع نسبة الوقاية إلى الفشل.

مثال محسوب (قيم توضيحية)

120,000 $ + 80,000 $ = 200,000 $ تكلفة فشل، أي 10% من مبيعات 2,000,000 $. الإجمالي = 260,000 $، أي 13% من المبيعات. الوقاية إلى الفشل = 20,000 : 200,000 = 1 : 10.

قراءة النتيجة

تعدّ الأداة تكلفة الجودة الكلية دون 5% من المبيعات جيدة، ومن 5 إلى 15% تحذيرًا، وفوق 15% ضعيفة؛ وتكلفة الفشل دون 3% جيدة. وتُنبّه إذا كانت الوقاية أقل من 0.3 من تكلفة الفشل.

متى تستخدمه

استخدمها لتقدير خسائر الجودة بالدولار وللدفاع عن نقل الإنفاق من الفشل إلى الوقاية. خذ كل فئة من الفترة المحاسبية نفسها.

In one line

Failure cost is internal plus external losses; total cost of quality also includes prevention and appraisal. Keep categories exclusive. Trend each component against sales and prioritise recurring failure causes using recorded evidence.

Worked example

EXAMPLE

Illustrative values (the calculator defaults), not data from a real site.

Inputs
Internal failure (scrap + rework)120000 $/yr
External failure (warranty + returns)80000 $/yr
Appraisal (inspection + testing)40000 $/yr
Prevention (training + improvement)20000 $/yr
Annual revenue / sales2000000 $/yr
Results
Total cost of quality$260,000/yr
Failure cost (COPQ)$200,000
Total CoQ % of sales13%
Failure % of sales10%
Prevention : failure1 : 10

Frequently asked questions

What counts as internal vs external failure cost?

Internal failure is anything caught and fixed before the product or service reaches the customer — scrap, rework, re-inspection, downtime from quality issues. External failure is everything discovered after the customer has it — warranty claims, returns, complaint handling, recalls and the associated loss of goodwill, which is hard to price but real.

My failure costs feel hard to pin down — where do they usually hide?

Common blind spots are engineering or operator time spent on rework that never gets coded as a quality cost, expedited freight to replace defective shipments, and management time spent on customer complaints — these often don't appear in a formal quality budget but belong in the internal/external failure totals.

What's a healthy prevention-to-failure ratio?

There's no fixed rule, but the PAF model's core argument is that increasing prevention spend relative to failure spend pays off — organisations that invest meaningfully in prevention (training, error-proofing, process control) tend to see failure costs fall by a larger multiple than the prevention dollars spent, though the exact ratio varies by industry and process maturity.

Why express cost of quality as a percentage of sales instead of a raw dollar figure?

Percentage of sales lets you benchmark against your own historical trend and against other organisations regardless of company size — the same dollar figure of COPQ means something very different for a small business than a large one, so the percentage is the more meaningful number to track over time.

Should appraisal cost be treated the same as failure cost?

No — appraisal (inspection, testing) is generally viewed as a necessary but non-value-adding cost that a mature quality system tries to shrink over time by building quality in through prevention, rather than inspecting defects out. Rising appraisal cost alongside flat failure cost can be a sign of over-reliance on inspection instead of process control.

Donate · Faire un don · تبرّع