Cost of Defects Calculator

Download this handy spreadsheet* to help you determine the actual costs of defects.

Making defects is not in a company's business plan, and as such the issues are often not tracked very well. But those defects are swelling the costs and eating away at your profits. It is a good idea to have a true grasp of what you are actually spending.

We have provided this simple "Cost of Defects" calculator to help you analyze the extent of the problem. You can use the results to communicate the real consequences of making defects with others in your workplace.

Note: We have used a rule-of-thumb for the cost of overhead at a factor of 2.5. This would be valid in a typical labor/hand tool type of line. As the technology of the production process goes up, the factor used to calculate overhead should also increase. If you need exact numbers, you may want to get your accounting department involved.

*Requires Microsoft Excel software. (When opening this file, you will need to "enable macros" at the prompt.)