A Study On The TQM-Based Quality Cost Control System For Business Enterprises

Nowadays, product quality has become the most important backbone for enterprises competing in the international market. Quality management has also become a core element in business management. Quality cost management is a combination of quality control and cost management. The system of quality cost management possesses the features of both quality control and cost management. On one hand, the economic characteristic of quality control requires the combination of quality and cost as well as that of quality technology and quality economy. On the other hand, the development of cost management also requires an extension into the field of quality, so that quality and cost may be combined under a new management approach. In 1950s, the quality management in Western countries shifted from pure technical management to management that combined technology and economy. In 1970s, quality cost management moved toward TQM. And since 1990s, with the developments in economy, technology and modern management science, new ideas in management have poured fresh vigor into quality cost management.Strictly speaking, quality cost management is a process, with the aim to control quality cost. Therefore, the core of quality cost management is to strengthen the quality cost control, to meet the demands of improving quality and reducing cost. The incurrence of quality cost is influence by many factors, including internal and external factors, as well as technical and artificial factors. Thus, establishing a TQM-based quality cost management system will offer a practical guidance to those enterprises that are under great pressures of competition.Enterprises are operating in a particular economic environment. When the environment has changed, they would have to adjust their operational systems and restructure their control systems. Then, under the framework of TQM, how could they break the traditional ways of thinking and restructure their quality cost management?In this article, the author first gives a systematic review of the studies on quality cost management theory. And then, based on it, the author analyzes the basic frame of TQM, discusses the theoretical feasibility of constructing a TQM-based quality cost management system, and puts forward a new insight into constructing a TQM-based quality cost management system.In this article, the author's viewpoints include:First, under the rapidly change in communication technology, modern management methods and market demands, the construction of TQM-based quality cost management system is facing more and more innovative theories, such as Zero Defects, Lean Thinking, 6 Sigma theory and PDCA cyclic theory.Second, the TQM-based quality cost management system should not be an isolated, closed system, but should be an open, dynamic system with a strong environmental flexibility. Therefore, from the perspective of space, the system should include the quality cost management in the production process as well as in the stage of design. From the perspective of time, it should include the process control during the incurrence of quality cost, as well as ex ante control and ex post control.Third, base on the analysis above, the author tries to construct an open, overall framework for a quality cost management system which is based on TQM, with quality costs placed under the frame of strategy management, with target quality costs as its ex ante control criteria, with activity-based quality costing as the core of its process control, and with quality performance report as the basis of its ex post control..