Philip B. Crosby

Crosby argued that preventing defects costs less than fixing them, a case operators still use to justify spending on accuracy controls. His book Quality Is Free claimed that the cost of poor quality, including rework, returns, and lost customers, usually exceeds the cost of doing work right the first time. He set zero defects as the performance standard. In fulfillment, the cost of a mis-ship includes reshipping, return postage, labor, and possibly a lost customer, which is why investments in scan verification often pay for themselves.

• Perfect Order RateShare of orders with nothing wrong
• Order AccuracyShare of orders shipped without errors
• Cost per ReturnTotal cost of handling one return

• W. Edwards Deming1900–1993 · Statistician and quality management pioneer
• Joseph M. Juran1904–2008 · Quality management pioneer
• Armand V. Feigenbaum1922–2014 · Originator of total quality control

1. Philip B. Crosby (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
2. Zero Defects (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org