Question - Ross Co. implemented a quality improvement program and tracked the following for the five years:

Quality cost Actual Sales Costs as a percentage of sales

2009 500,000 2,000,000 25%

2010 495,000 2,200,000 22.50

2011 450,000 2,400,000 18.75

2012 434,000 2,480,000 17.50

2013 400,000 3,200,000 12.50

By cost category as a percentage of sales for the same period of time:

Prevention Appraisal Internal Fail External Failure

2009 2.50% 2.50% 7.50% 12.50%

2010 3.75 3.00 5.00 10.75

2011 3.75 3.75 3.75 7.50

2012 5.00 3.75 3.13 5.63

2013 6.38 3.00 2.50 1.90

1. Prepare a bar graph that reveals the trend in quality cost as a percentage of sales (time on the horizontal axis and percentages on the vertical) Comment on the message of the graph.

2. Prepare a bar graph for each cost category as a percentage of sales. What does the graph tell you?

3. What if management would like to have the trend in relative distribution of quality costs? Express this as a bar graph and comment on its significance.