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In a plant, everything has a cost. But rework and scrap shouldn’t be part of your standard production expenses.
 
If your team already treats rework or discarding parts as part of the daily routine, the issue goes deeper than a one-time deviation — your quality culture is eroding.
 
For anyone responsible for quality and production, reducing rework and waste isn’t just a best practice — it’s a strategic necessity. 

The Hidden Cost of Rework
 
 Let’s be clear: every rework comes with at least four direct costs: 

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Have You Gotten Used to Scrap? It’s Time to Break the Cycle

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What If You Had a Partner to Solve This With You?

At PTI QCS, we help OEMs and automotive suppliers identify systemic failures, contain defects before they escalate, and recover components others might discard.

Because when quality is taken seriously from day one, cost stops being a chronic problem — and becomes a competitive edge.
 
If you're looking to reduce costs without compromising standards, we’re here to help. Write to us at janava@ptiqcs.com for Mexico or sales@ptiqcs.com for the U.S. and Canada.

A Quality Digest article revealed that rework can represent 5–30% of total manufacturing costs, depending on the sector and process maturity.
 
And scrap?
 
Sometimes it seems more “convenient” to discard than to repair, but that mindset adds up. Uncontrolled material waste can quietly eat into margins if your process audits aren’t effective. 

Where Are Your Profits Slipping Away?
 
An operator “helps” by reworking off the record.
 
The defect slips through unnoticed — and by the time it reaches the customer, it’s too late. This happens every day. Not from bad intentions, but from lack of protocol.
 
The quality team rushes to react — but doesn’t prevent.
 
By the time they’re alerted, there’s already a mountain of nonconforming parts. Quality turns into a firefighter, not a process guardian.
 
The design changes — but no one informs the floor.
 
The operator sticks to the old version, “the way it’s always been done.” The result? Scrap. And expensive scrap at that.

Practical Ideas to Cut Costs Starting Today

1. Extra labor (that adds no new value). 
2. Time lost to unplanned cycles. 
3. Materials consumed or discarded. 
4. Risk of customer impact and contract penalties. 
   

• Use simple, one-page visual checklists to catch basic deviations frictionlessly. 
  
  
• Verify whether your FTY (First Time Yield) and RTY (Rolled Throughput Yield) metrics reflect reality — or just the illusion of quality. 
  
  
• Train your staff to stop the line without penalty when anomalies are spotted (yes, it sounds radical — but it costs less than a CS2). 
  
  
• Set up alerts for repeated rework by shift to tackle root causes before they become “normal.”