Douglas C. Wood

This book gives an overview about Quality Costs systems and its importance to any company’s bottom line. It highlights the link to the bottom line and how to establish it. I liked its focus on involving top management and Finance department to get the system up and running. Such is a key success factor in implementing COQ system and reaping its benefits.

It takes the reader thru a journey of how to start with management buy-in, to the reporting frequency and structure, to the pros and cons of different infrastructure of COQ systems. Although some seemed controversial to me, the book listed, in Appendix A, various examples of each of the COQ categories (Prevention, Appraisal, Internal Failures, and External Failures).

That said, the book lacks a detailed case study with figures before and after deploying a COQ system. The two case studies presented in Appendix B were insufficient to convince the reader of the benefit of the COQ system. It would’ve been much better if the author included detailed spreadsheets with numbers for various COQ categories before and after the improvements claimed showing the effect of changing one category over the others.

Generally, this book is good for beginners and executives who are new to the subject. Yet, further readings are necessary for those who want to put this concept in real practice.… (more)