| Appraisal costs | Costs that are incurred to identify defective products before the products are shipped to customers. 
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| External failure costs | Costs that are incurred when a product or service that is defective is delivered to a customer. 
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| Internal failure costs | Costs that are incurred as a result of identifying defective products before they are shipped to customers. 
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| ISO 9000 standards | Quality control requirements issued by the International Organization for Standardization that relate to products sold in European countries. 
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| Prevention costs | Costs that are incurred to keep defects from occurring. 
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| Quality circles | Small groups of employees that meet on a regular basis to discuss ways of improving quality. 
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| Quality cost | Costs that are incurred to prevent defective products from falling into the hands of customers or that are incurred as a result of defective units. 
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| Quality cost report | A report that details prevention costs, appraisal costs, and the costs of internal and external failures. 
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| Quality of conformance | The degree to which a product or service meets or exceeds its design specifications and is free of defects or other problems that mar its appearance or degrade its performance. 
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| Statistical process control | A charting technique used to monitor the quality of work being done in a workstation for the purpose of immediately correcting any problems. 
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