An exploratory study on quality costs in Turkish manufacturing companies

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Turkish manufacturing companies implement a cost of quality (COQ) system, to evaluate how company performance has changed after COQ system implementation, and to identify the objectives behind COQ measuring and reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology of the study was a postal questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted with the top 500 industrial enterprises in Turkey specified by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) for the year 2005. These firms are selected and ranked by ICI according to production‐based sales.

Findings

The findings indicated that almost half (49.5 percent) of responding firms currently implement a COQ system. After COQ system implementation, the following remarkable changes were observed in business operations of the responding companies: customer complaints decreased; rework and scrap decreased; warranty expenditures decreased; failure costs decreased; and sales volume increased. The most important three objectives behind COQ measuring and reporting are: overall quality improvement; setting cost reduction targets and measuring progress; and improving control of quality activities.

Research limitations/implications

The sample is restricted to the top 500 industrial enterprises in Turkey. As the data in this study were collected from manufacturing companies, the findings should not be generalized to other sectors.

Originality/value

The paper provides the general practices and perceptions of the largest Turkish manufacturing companies on quality costs.

Citation

Uyar, A. (2008), "An exploratory study on quality costs in Turkish manufacturing companies", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 604-620. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656710810881908