Improvement Insights Blog

The Invisible Cost of Quality in Healthcare

There’s an invisible cost associated with poor quality: no customers. In healthcare, it’s called LWBS. Here’s what that stands for, and what it could mean for your business:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“One of the things nobody thinks about is the invisible cost of Quality: no customers.

“I’ve been seeing dermatologists (I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where it’s always sunny),I’ve been seeing a dermatologist for many years, and I was seeing the doctor for a while, and then I got punted down to a PA, who I really liked.

Continue Reading "The Invisible Cost of Quality in Healthcare"

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Cost of Poor Quality

Every businesses wastes a quarter to a third of total expenses 1) fixing stuff that shouldn’t be broken (rework) and 2) throwing away stuff that can’t be fixed (scrap). There are four main costs of poor quality:

1. Internal failures that cause rework and scrap.
2. External failures that increase returns (to be reworked or scrapped), billing adjustments, concessions and customer complaints.
3. Inspection costs of incoming materials,inspection of work in process and final inspection and testing.
4. Prevention costs (i.e, Lean Six Sigma)

Inspection, failure, rework and scrap can easily devour much of a companies time and money. Preventing these problems is far less expensive, but requires focus and dedication to eliminate mistakes and errors.

Continue Reading "Cost of Poor Quality"

Posted by Jay Arthur in Six Sigma.