
Introduction to Quality 31
As mentioned earlier, some companies use only the failure costs as the
index to monitor the quality performance of a system� Others add some of
the indirect costs to the TQC if they seem to be signicant to their operations�
It does not matter how the economic index is dened for a company as long
as the same denition is used consistently over time so that comparisons
are valid� However, if a comparison is sought between one company’s TQC
with another’s—for example, a quality leader or a competitor—then the TQC
needs to be made up of the same components in both systems for a valid
comparison� That is when a standard ...