Custos Relacionados Com a Qualidade: Contributos Para O Desempenho Organizacional

Abstract

In the 1960s, the technique of Quality-Related Costs (QRCs) arose in an attempt to prove that quality contributed to profitability, which was not a cost but an investment. However, QRCs are no longer counted, since the models have become obsolete, the benefits are unquestionable, and the use of information has been small and of little use to organizations. However, the knowledge and learning society and the entrepreneurial dynamics place the QRCs problem on another level of analysis. This article intends to raise a set of issues, such as: the dimensions and forms of management in the framework of alliances, or in other new organizational solutions; how to assess the costs of process management and the value of intangible assets; and what costs can / should be made autonomous, in a useful way to support management decisions. The quantification of the QRCs established the link between them and the operational and financial results, revealing how quality increases the performance of companies. However, approaches to QRCs need to be rethought and developed to respond to new organizational realities. Some perspectives are advanced and other challenges are proposed to quality and production researchers, because it has been concluded that there are still unexplored potentialities.