This paper presents a framework of contemporary quality costs concept contributing to a more sustainable society regarding an integrated view of quality costs in all phases of the product life cycle (engineering, production, use, and end-of-life) by all stakeholders in the supply chain. The development of this framework is viewed through the complementarity of the sustainability dimensions and the circular economy concept understood as a waste management concept, which represents a solid basis for the development of a novel approach to understanding quality costs which, in turn, reflects the sustainable quality concept. By providing sustainable criteria (economic, environmental, and social) as an integral part of the quality costs concept, this framework will improve the sustainability performance in the early phases of product design, increase the added value of the products and the duration of the added value, and strengthen the responsibility of all stakeholders beyond the limits of their organizational processes. This will inevitably lead to changes to the quality cost structure, dominated by new quality costs elements which reflect sustainability. This research demonstrates the findings that should support the setting the theoretic assumptions for the development of a sustainable quality cost generic model.

This paper presents four approaches to the graphic interpretation of the quality costs structure definition models: classical, modern, modified, and visionary approach. These give rise to theoretical graphic quality costs models and illustrate the relationship between the quality costs categories, as well as the relationship between the quality costs categories and the total quality costs and the quality level. The paper comparatively analyzes the underlying assumptions, existing knowledge, and principles characteristic of each approach. This contributes to the shaping of the quality costs categories curves and the overall quality cost curve in the theoretical models. The conducted analysis in the paper will enable forecasting the trend of development of theoretical graphic models and identification of potential stakeholders that contribute to changes in the structure and the behavior of the quality costs categories, and thus the behavior of the overall quality costs.

This paper presents the theoretical aspects taken into account when creating an algorithm for a quality costs measurement system, developed using a descriptive-analytical method. The methodological approach relies on the systemic thinking about management of success, including the elements of integration, innovation and agility, taken into account when developing the scope, rules, criteria, possibilities and alternatives. The proposed algorithm provides a structured approach and systematic measurement of the quality costs, which, in turn provides for better understanding, detection and correction of the errors on the spot where they actually occurred and not where they appeared. This ensures the timeliness, accuracy and reliability of the data and information about the costs of quality, opens possibilities not only for diagnostic analytics but also for predictive and prescriptive analytics, which increases the efficiency of the company.

The primary objective of this paper is to find out whether we can use the quality cost model as a tool for visualizing the quality targets in the quality management using the quality costs. The analysis showed that a graphic interpretation of the quality costs model in the companies makes the quality targets “more visible” and “more representative”. The visualization of the quality costs model focuses the efforts of management to use the graphic interpretation of the quality costs for the purposes of visibility, monitoring, comparison with the quality targets at the company level, and beyond during negotiations.

This study primarily aims at presenting a realistic picture of the utilitarian nature of quality costs in companies around the world. This has led to researching the quality costs applications levels, the percentage share of the total quality costs, the percentage share measuring the quality costs categories, as well as the measured percentage shares of the quality costs in the companies. The analytical research methodology relies on an integrated chronological, comparative, logical and systematic analysis of scientific literature, complemented by inductive and deductive methods. The research results confirm the need to raise the awareness for, determination, and commitment to a broader application of the quality costs concept through an understanding and integration of the new societal values of contemporary operations, whereby the understanding of the application of the quality costs concept will deepen and the quality costs concept itself will shift from the margins of a purely theoretical concept. We expect that the contemporary ambitious concepts such as Sustainability, Industry 4.0, Quality 4.0, Business Process Reengineering, Circular economy -Remanufacturing, Innovation 5.0 will contribute to the development a higher level of quality maturity which, in turn, will make the application of quality costs more attractive. In particular, as this will reflect on the redesigning and redefining the quality costs' structure to include new modernized elements of quality costs, and the quality costs concept will be reaffirmed in a new direction and will become recursive.