Contribution of the quality costs to sustainable development

Abstract 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.