Economic impact of quality inspection in manufacturing: A proposal for a novel cost modeling

Designing suitable quality inspections is a significant issue for manufacturing companies. In particular, performing an economic evaluation of alternative inspections is key for choosing the most appropriate, especially in the field of low-volume productions. This paper presents a cost breakdown model for assessing the economic performance of quality inspections with the aim to support designers in early inspection design phases. Unlike the main cost models developed in the scientific literature that only consider cost components related to the production process, the proposed model integrates production costs with the main cost drivers involved in the product quality-related steps, including inspection activities, pre- and after-sales reworks and unnecessary repairs due to inspection errors. Moreover, a novel performance measure providing a snapshot of profitability of product inspections – the Return On Investment of Inspections (ROII) – is presented. An application case in metal Additive Manufacturing is proposed to demonstrate the practical relevance of the model.