Is Quality Free or Profitable?

摘要

For years practitioners and academics have suspected that the standard analysis of quality can lead to levels of quality of conformance that may not necessarily maximize bottom line returns. Programs such as Motorola's Six Sigma effort proceeded not on the basis of any well defined economic rationale, but rather on the belief of Motorola's top management that improved quality would benefit the firm in ways not always adequately reflected by simple accounting measures. Likewise, General Electric's Jack Welch embarked on a Six Sigma quality improvement program without apparent economic support. These actions, based largely on intuition, are actually supported by sound economic reasoning, but this economic reasoning requires an extension of the standard cost of quality (COQ) model.