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Quality Systems And Quality Control

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This review will discuss the costs of quality systems and quality control in the scientific sense, within clinical laboratories by looking at the literature, to ultimately arrive at conclusions on whether the implementation of quality systems is financially beneficial or rather costly. The importance of such quality systems and the complex factors which impact the success and failure of such systems will also be discussed with reference to the literature. COST OF QUALITY The cost of quality (COQ) by definition, is the cost that is resultant of bad quality or the cost of implementing quality systems to ensure good quality within an organization [1]. The concept of quality saving money, time and effort was advocated by Phil Crosby who strongly contributed to quality management theory and famously stated that ‘Quality is free; it’s non-conformance that costs’ [1]. Furthermore, poor quality has been shown to be common and costly amongst various industries [2]. The positive and encouraging evidence for implementing COQ programs, to ultimately produce higher quality services or products while saving resources, is widespread and abundant. Successful examples are numerous and include Motorola, Xerox and Westing-house; companies which have cut quality costs by 30% to just 2 and 3% of sales over a period of time in endeavour to gain a competitive advantage on the market [2]. Despite the obvious benefits of assessing quality costs and implementing quality measures to provide better

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