How much do we lose on non-quality?

The economic basis of national quality efforts is now seen as natural and b eyond argument by most quality people. In order to obviate the fact that qu ality work is an essential contributor to national prosperity, we must inco rporate quality indices into the current national economic indices. The nat ional cost of non-quality is a natural index. The cost of waste caused by i nadequate designing, planning and working practices in the economy are taki ng their toll from our treasury; in fact, as much as 30 percent of the gros s national product is (carefully) estimated as cost of non-quality. One way of measuring and controlling this waste is to define and implement a natio nal cost of non-quality index. Another approach, proposed here, is the crea tion of a simpler index, one that measures losses incurred to the public du e to faulty products and services. This index is easy to measure and may se rve as an indicator of the quality of products and services produced and pr ovided to the population. Data collected in a survey are presented and rule s for data collection and analysis are discussed.