ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that costs help to keep quality aspects of the business in the spotlight, but only if featured in the regular management accounts and reporting system. In promoting quality as an important business parameter, some organiza tions go even further. Costs are used to illustrate that it is not only the quality department that is involved in quality, and that everyone’s work affects the quality of the product and/or service, and to encourage everyone’s ownership for continu ous improvement in processes for which they are responsible. The success of gatherers and presenters of quality-related costs in promoting quality by means of costs is difficult to gauge. So far as is known, there has been no formal study to determine how chief executive officers who are aware of the importance of quality became so. It is clear that many executives got the message without having quality cost information to hand. Indeed, in some cases it is the other way around - a belief in the importance of quality to corporate health has prompted a quality cost investi gation.
