Beyond Accreditation: Understanding the Cost of Quality in Conformity Assessment Bodies

What This Webinar Covers:

Many Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) view quality mainly in terms of visible, budgeted expenses such as accreditation fees, internal audits, proficiency testing, training, and equipment calibration. This on-demand webinar looks past those obvious costs to examine the far larger and frequently hidden expense: the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ). Drawing on decades of accreditation assessment experience, PJLA walks through the true financial impact of quality failures for testing and calibration laboratories, inspection bodies, certification bodies, proficiency testing providers, and reference material producers.

The session breaks down quality costs into four components, prevention, appraisal, and internal and external failure costs, and shows how repeated testing, appeals, complaints, technical investigations, and accreditation nonconformities quietly erode profitability, customer confidence, and regulatory standing. Rather than treating quality as a compliance checkbox, the webinar reframes it as a measurable driver of operational risk and long-term business performance.

What You’ll Learn:

• The difference between the Cost of Quality (COQ) and the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)
• The four components of quality cost and how each applies to CAB operations
• How hidden costs such as repeat testing, appeals, and technical investigations accumulate
• How accreditation helps reduce organizational risk and improve efficiency
• Practical ways to measure quality costs using performance indicators and dashboards
• How to reposition quality as a competitive advantage rather than a compliance burden

Key Takeaways:

• Visible costs like calibration and training are only a fraction of the true cost of quality; hidden failure costs are usually far larger and harder to track.
• Cost of Quality is best understood through four categories: prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure.
• Root cause analysis, not surface-level correction, is what actually reduces repeat nonconformities and their associated costs.
• A strong quality culture means exposing and resolving problems internally before customers or regulators discover them.
• Organizations that underinvest in prevention end up spending significantly more correcting avoidable failures.

Presented By:

Dr. George Anastasopoulos
Technical and International Business Development Manager of PJLA