Cost of poor quality

COPQ was popularized by IBM quality expert H. James Harrington in his 1987 book Poor-Quality Cost.

In the 1960s, IBM undertook an effort to study its own quality costs and tailored the concept for its own use.

[2] While Feigenbaum's term "quality costs" is technically accurate, it's easy for the uninitiated to jump to the conclusion that better quality products cost more to produce.

Harrington adopted the name "poor quality costs" to emphasize the belief that investment in detection and prevention of product failures is more than offset by the savings in reductions in product failures.

Harrington breaks down COPQ into the following elements: Harrington noted that expanding cost analyses to management and clerical workers could also make a significant dent in waste.