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The Cost of Quality, sometimes referred to as COQ, is a measurement that sums up the costs related to the prevention and subsequent detection of defects, and the costs associated with these defects. The COQ defines the total costs of quality activities. This is money spent beyond the basic production costs to ensure that the customer receives a quality product. Let's take a look at how COQ is calculated.
The Formula The COQ includes the money spent on prevention, appraisal, and correction in a production environment. COQ can be expressed as the effort in terms of time, but it is probably best served as a calculation involving money. The calculation itself is not complicated, and it is the addition of two compound values (which makes this the most straightforward approach to COQ):
The Cost of Control and Cost of Failure of Control each require a calculation based on their components. Cost of Control The Cost of Control can be defined as follows:
The Prevention Cost is the amount of money spent to prevent defects incurred during the manufacturing process. All Quality Assurance programs and efforts are included in this number, including any preventive measures taken. The Appraisal Cost is the cost associated with all efforts focused on the detection of defects. The cost associated with Quality Control efforts are included here, including final testing and other forms of quality control. Cost of Failure of Control The Cost of Failure of Control is sometimes known as the Cost of Non-Conformance. This is the total cost of failure within the manufacturing process. It is broken up into Internal Failures and External Failures.
Internal Failure Cost is the direct cost associated with internally recognized defects and the costs associated with correcting them. For example, this would be the expense of fixing the discovered defects and retesting them, also known as Cost of Rework. External Failure Cost is the cost associated with defects discovered by the customer and their correction. This Cost of Rework for external failures can include such items as product service, liability issues, and recalls. Balancing Costs Getting the COQ to a minimum requires careful balancing between the Cost of Control and the Cost of Failure of Control. The prevailing thought is that an increased Cost of Control will keep the Cost of Failure of Control to a minimum. However, in most practical applications an increased Cost of Control can rapidly approach a diminishing return on investment when it is raised beyond a certain degree of effectiveness. The key is to keep the costs balanced as needed. Quality has a price that can be calculated and studied. But the importance of maintaining the business image has many returns in repeat business and word of mouth. For more information on how Accupoint can help your organization monitor and reduce your COQ, please contact us today. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be a great tool to improve the customer satisfaction of your business. It can also help to expand your customer base. NPS is a simple process, but the effects can have a significant impact on your business. Let's look at the advantages of NPS.
1. The NPS Process Is Customer Friendly How likely is it you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? Determining the NPS requires only asking the single question above. When you ask it, the customer responds with a range from 0 (not at all) to 10 (extremely likely.) It requires minimal effort on their part. By asking only a single question, the customer is more likely to take the time to give an answer. The last thing you want to do is to burden your customers with an exhaustive survey. Since they are not, the customer will provide accurate information and still leave in a good mood. 2. NPS Provides a Target for Focusing Customer Relations Efforts NPS gives a clear picture of how customers view your products and services. People tend to be conservative when it comes to making a recommendation. By asking this question, you can get a good measure of the customer's satisfaction. Once you have the measurement in place, it gives you a clear goal to focus on while you try to raise it. The goal should be to move all the detractors (those with a score of 0 to 6) to a passive level (7 or 8.) And you should, in turn, move all the passives you can to promoters (9 or 10.) Promoters can do incredible things for your business when it comes to getting the word out. 3. NPS Can Reduce the Cost of Customer Acquisition The best way of increasing a customer base is by word of mouth. Since the NPS is a direct measure of how likely this is to happen, it gives you a very focused metric on which to improve. You will want to nurture low scoring customers. Doing this will increase the likelihood of future product and service recommendations. Taking care of low scoring customers will also help to keep them coming back for more business. Every saved customer relationship is one you don't have to pay to replace later. This can have a positive impact your bottom line. The NPS can be a simple yet powerful tool in customer relations for your business. Contact us today for more information on how Accupoint Software can help streamline your customer bench-marking process. With the changing landscape of the oil and gas industry, companies are under increasing pressure to improve operational efficiencies as prices continue to remain low and margins are narrowed. In order to reduce costs and improve efficiency, many organizations are adopting a structured quality management system (QMS).
Health & Safety Due to the hazardous environment that many oil and gas companies operate in, the federal government along with the International Organization for Standardization developed a standard for Process Safety Management procedures and protocols. While this addresses the procedures to prevent major chemical accidents and occupational safety hazards, it is limited in encompassing the operational aspects of the industry. Primary Objective The goal, is to develop an oil and gas compliance solution that includes industry best practices for all systems such as service quality, risk assessment, employee training, document control, corrective actions and preventive maintenance. A comprehensive solution may seem difficult for our complex industry; however, incorporating common standards of practice is essential to realizing integrated operational excellence. Clients and Stakeholders Both clients and stakeholders, are becoming increasingly demanding regarding the standardization and regulations that those companies they do business with must comply with. As an example, many customers are now requiring that their service supply organizations comply with the API Spec Q2 requirement. Using a system designed specifically for this standard streamlines the administration and reporting of said requirements. Increased Collaboration A quality management system increases efficiency and collaboration. It ensures compliance and provides metrics reporting to prove such compliance. It defines strategies, goals and best practices and the means to secure them. A good quality management system is, however, only as good as the team behind it. Ensure that policies and procedures are in place that clearly communicate expectations and requirements. The Bottom Line Planning and control of critical tasks is required to minimize risks and improve operational efficiency. A comprehensive management solution can connect multiple locations with secure, real-time communications, thus providing instantaneous performance feedback. Furthermore, deployment of an effective quality management system tells your customers that you are at the top of your class and aiming for the best in products and services, ultimately ensuring customer loyalty through operational efficiency For more information on how Accupoint Software can help you implement a quality management system specific to your needs, please contact us today. Key performance indicators, or KPIs, are a useful to way to determine the effectiveness of your team or company in its efforts to meet performance objectives. When establishing KPIs, it's important to understand exactly what would indicate success for your team, and whether or not it is measurable. Here are four KPI Metrics Measurement Fundamentals to consider.
Is it specific to your team and to your stakeholders? A useful KPI targets a goal that your team has control over, and an outcome that your stakeholders desire. If you're managing a quality control laboratory, you likely wouldn't want to set a KPI dependent on the overall company's ROI. This is outside of your team's direct control, and it doesn't apply directly to your primary stakeholders. Instead, ask yourself, what indicates my team is performing successfully, and what do our stakeholders care about. In a quality control laboratory, this might be number of tests run per day, or perhaps target turnaround times for each sample received. Does it motivate or discourage? Think of a KPI as a realistic stretch goal, not unrealistic perfection. Improving customer satisfaction by 3% is likely doable. Requiring turnaround times under 24 hours for a 48 hour test is not. What you set as a KPI directly impacts your team members and your stakeholders. It's up to you to set realistic, meaningful targets, and to frame it in a way that motivates instead of discourages. How will the KPI be measured? A KPI is only useful if there is a system in place to measure it. If you're targeting customer satisfaction, are you already sending out customer surveys? And do you have a baseline number to work from? Or, if you're interested in setting turnaround times as your KPI, how will this be measured? Is there already a software system in place? Do you, your team, and your customers have a common understanding of what a satisfactory turnaround time would be? What will the dashboard for the KPI look like, and how will results be communicated? What do you hope to learn or improve by measuring this KPI? KPIs are not only an opportunity to determine how effective your team is, they're also a way to determine opportunities for improvement and growth. When setting a KPI, ask yourself what might need to change in order to succeed, and what needs to change if you're unsuccessful. These could be things like processes, improvements in communication, or streamlining sample processing. Who will make these changes, and when? Selecting and measuring effective KPIs is an important way to ensure team success and client satisfaction. Please contact us to find out how we can help you track your targets. We look forward to hearing from you! The API Spec Q2 standard requires that service supply organizations monitor customer satisfaction. Specifically, Section 6.2.1 states:
“The organization shall maintain a documented procedure to monitor customer satisfaction. The procedure shall address customer feedback, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other information that the organization monitors to determine whether the organization has met customer requirements. Records of the results of customer satisfaction information shall be maintained.” With this in mind, here are five best practices to consider when creating your satisfaction survey:
on and analyzed.
exponentially.
into groups with similar characteristics will highlight trends that may not otherwise be apparent. Understand that to effectively measure customer satisfaction, you must evaluate more than whether the customer is satisfied. Best practice dictates that we evaluate the satisfaction level throughout the interaction process and, more importantly that we survey appropriate personnel that have first-hand knowledge of our performance. Remember that the ultimate goal of measuring customer satisfaction is to facilitate customer retention and referrals, leading to long term growth. For more information on how Accupoint can help you streamline your Customer Satisfaction process, please call us toll free at 800.563.6250 or visit us at www.accupointsoftware.com. |
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