An improvement in quality costs is MOST clearly indicated when:

Question

Options

• AAppraisal and failure costs drop.
• BPrevention costs increase.
• CTotal quality costs fall below 15% of total sales.
• DManagement objectives are met.

• A
  3% (1)
• B
  16% (6)
• C
  11% (4)
• D
  71% (27)

Explanation

Meeting management objectives is the clearest indicator of improvement in quality costs because those objectives define what "better" looks like - they set the target against which progress is measured. Without a defined goal, no data point on its own can confirm improvement; with one, achievement is unambiguous.

Option A is wrong because a drop in appraisal and failure costs in isolation does not confirm improvement - prevention costs may have risen enough to offset any savings, leaving total quality costs unchanged or worse. Option B is wrong because rising prevention costs represent an investment, not an outcome; spending more does not by itself mean the quality cost situation improved. Option C is wrong because the 15% threshold is arbitrary - there is no universal standard tying that figure to improvement, and an organization starting at 10% could worsen while still staying below 15%.

Memory tip: Think of management objectives as the scoreboard. You can observe individual stats (appraisal down, prevention up), but you have only truly improved when the scoreboard - the agreed-upon goal - says you won.

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