• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 2011

The successful and sustainable growth of SMEs depends on their ability of strengthen their competitiveness in quality and cost and service more than anything else as a fundamental of operation. Among these key competitive factors of SMEs, quality is the most critical factor in manufacturing business fields. There are many different ways to improve the quality performance but it needs proper management decision to choose the best way what can maximize outputs with minimum inputs. And it needs effective measurement methods and some indicators to analysis the quality performance properly. The quality cost is one of the simplest key indicators to measure the quality performance and the effectiveness of quality related management decisions. In this study, through survey on local SMEs, we found that their average annual quality cost ratio versus turnover - total amount of annual quality cost divided by annual turnover - is around 3.69% excluded some SME's performances what have different quality control measures with others. And we found some results what corresponded with the early studies on the correlations between those categorized quality costs factors and some discrepancies between some of the literature model and the early case study results as follows. There were negative correlations between the Prevention costs and the External failure costs, and the Appraisal costs and the External failure costs, and there was positive correlation between the Appraisal costs and Internal failure costs same as early studies. But, we couldn't found any strong negative correlations between the Cost of control - Prevention costs & Appraisal costs - and the Cost of Failure of control - Internal & External failure costs -.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.89-97
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• 2011

Traditional quality control for manufacturing or service sector is not suitable for the quality control of a project as the project is one-time task constrained by time, cost, and quality. To meet the internal and external customers' requirements, quality costs approach to the project will be effective. Hence, we propose PONC (price of nonconformance) estimation procedure and a mathematical model, which are focused on activity-based prevention in the execution step and warranty step of EPLC (extended project life cycle). This procedure and model will help project manager develop preventive action plan for project quality costs minimization from nonconformance risk activities and PONC estimates information.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6177-6180
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• 2014

Background: Our study objectives were to evaluate the medical economics of cervical cancer prevention and thereby contribute to cancer care policy decisions in Japan. Methods: Model creation: we created presence-absence models for prevention by designating human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for primary prevention of cervical cancer. Cost classification and cost estimates: we divided the costs of cancer care into seven categories (prevention, mass-screening, curative treatment, palliative care, indirect, non-medical, and psychosocial cost) and estimated costs for each model. Cost-benefit analyses: we performed cost-benefit analyses for Japan as a whole. Results: HPV vaccination was estimated to cost $291.5 million, cervical cancer screening $76.0 million and curative treatment $12.0 million. The loss due to death was $251.0 million and the net benefit was -$128.5 million (negative). Conclusion: Cervical cancer prevention was not found to be cost-effective in Japan. While few cost-benefit analyses have been reported in the field of cancer care, these would be essential for Japanese policy determination.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7499-7503
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• 2014

Physical inactivity has reached epidemic levels in developed countries and is being recognized as a serious public health problem. Recent evidence shows a high percentages of individuals worldwide who are physically inactive, i.e. do not achieve the WHO's present recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity per week in addition to usual activities. Living in sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading causes of deaths and a high risk factor for several chronic diseases, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes type 2, and osteoporosis. This article summarizes evidence for relative risk of the civilization diseases attributable to physical inactivity and the most important conclusions available from the recent investigations computing the economic costs specific to physical inactivity. The findings provide health and economic arguments needed for people to understand the meaning of a sedentary lifestyle. This may be also useful for public health policy in the creation of programmes for prevention of physical inactivity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3767-3772
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• 2012

Objective: We estimated the total medical costs incurred during the 5 years following a cancer diagnosis and annual medical use status for the six most prevalent cancers in Korea. Methods: From January 1 to December 31, 2006, new patients registered with the six most prevalent cancers (stomach, liver, lung, breast, colon, and thyroid) were randomly selected from the Korea Central Cancer Registry, with 30% of patients being drawn from each cancer group. For the selected patients, cost data were generated using National Health Insurance claims data from the time of cancer diagnosis in 2006 to December 31, 2010. The total number of patients selected was 28,509. Five-year total medical costs by tumor site and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) stage at the time of diagnosis, and annual total medical costs from diagnosis, were estimated. All costs were calculated as per-patient net costs. Results: Mean 5-year net costs per patient varied widely, from $5,647 for thyroid cancer to $20,217 for lung cancer. Advanced stage at diagnosis was associated with a 1.8-2.5-fold higher total cost, and the total medical cost was highest during the first year following diagnosis and decreased by the third or fourth year. Conclusions: The costs of cancer care were substantial and varied by tumor site, annual phase, and stage at diagnosis. This indicates the need for increased prevention, earlier diagnosis, and new therapies that may assist in reducing medical costs.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2003

Quality is a critical competitive factor in today's environment because of the impact of quality on costs and delivery. Many companies regard quality as a key concept of company strategy in order to achieve the competitive edge. Measuring and reporting quality cost is the first step in quality management program. The supposition of quality cost model is that investment in prevention activities will bring rewards from reduced failure costs, and that further investment in prevention activities will show profits from reduced appraisal costs. In this study, the degree of quality cost deviation is conceptualized. This means a deviation between the ideal and present ranking in the amounts of quality cost categories. This study analysed that the effect of its deviation on quality management activity and performance variables. However, there are no difference in these variables. The major reason is that most of companies are endeavoring for quality management but operating quality cost system unsystematically. The review against a prevention and appraisal activity is necessary.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.3007-3013
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• 2016

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers are common malignancies associated with high mortality rates. Healthcare systems are always faced with high costs of treatment of gastrointestinal cancers including stomach cancer. Identification and prioritization of these costs can help determine economic burden and then improve of health planning by policy-makers. This study was performed in 2015 in Kerman City aimed at estimating the direct hospital costs for patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the medical records of 160 patients with stomach cancer admitted from 2011 to 2014 to Shafa Hospital were examined, the current stage of the disease and the patients' health status were identified, and the direct costs related to the type of treatment in the public and private sectors were calculated. SPSS-19 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Results: Of the patients studied, 103 (65%) were men and 57 (35%) were women. The mean age of patients was 65 years. Distribution into four stages of the disease was 5%, 20%, 30%, and 45%, respectively. Direct costs in four stages of the disease were calculated as 2191.07, 2642.93, 2877, and 2674.07 USD (63,045,879, 76,047,934, 82,783,019, and 76,943,800 IRR), respectively. The highest percentage of costs was related to surgery in Stage I and to medication in Stages II, III, and IV. According to the results of direct costs of treatment for stomach cancer in Kerman, the mean total cost of treating a patient in the public sector was estimated at 74,705,158 IRR, of which averages of 60,141,384 IRR and 14,563,774 IRR were the shares of insurance and patients, respectively. Conclusions: The high prevalence and diagnosis of disease in old age and at advanced stages of disease impose great costs on the patients and the health system. Early diagnosis through screening and selecting an appropriate treatment method might largely ameliorate the economic burden of the disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3159-3163
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• 2012

Background: For cervical cancer the epidemiological profile is poorly known in Morocco and no data is available concerning the direct medical costs. The purpose of this work is to estimate the direct cost of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco. Methods: The estimation of direct costs of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco is based on the estimation of individual cost in each stage which covers diagnosis, treatment and follow-up during first year. The cost was estimated per patient and whole cycle-set using the costs for each drug and procedure as indicated by the Moroccan National Agency for Health Insurance. Extrapolation of the results to the whole country was used to calculate the total annual cost of cervical cancer treatments in Morocco. Results: Overall approximately 1,978 new cases of cervical cancer occur each year in Morocco. The majority (82.96%) of these cases were diagnosed at a late stage (stageII or more). The cost of one case of cervical cancer depends on stage of diagnosis, the lowest cost is $382 for stageCis followed by the cost of stageIA1 for young women (< 40 years) which is $2,952. The highest cost is for stageIV, which is $7,827. The total cost of cervical cancer care for one year after diagnosis is estimated at $13,589,360. The share allocated to treatment is the most important part of the global care budget with an annual sum of $13,027,609 whereas other cost components are represented as follows: $435,694 for annual follow-up activity and $126,057 for diagnosis and preclinical staging. Conclusion: This study provides health decision-makers with a first estimate of costs and the opportunity to achieve the optimal use of available data to estimate the needs of health facilities in Morocco.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-68
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• 2007

Recently, people in cities of developed countries are exposed to unfortified damages of crime and disaster due to urbanization, industrialization and information-oriented era caused by congestion of population in terms of hardware and various social pathology phenomena and frequent and large scale of disaster caused by crime and disorder, which occur in the course of going through nuclear family, a gap between rich and poor and aging society in terms of software. In this regard, demand for security upon individual life and property has been increased but the police that are responsible for the public security does not effectively reduce damage in life and property because their activities are mainly oriented in coping with security accidents more than prevention. Shortage of manpower and budget, retarded equipment, and heavy overwork are the reasons. In order to confront with this kind of situation, we should utilize CCTV system with the purpose of declining possible chances of crime, not for eliminating cause of crime as crime prevention activities to predict danger in advance as a way of prevention and we may expect a role of damage prevention by installing CCTV in places where security accident may possibly happen. In conclusion, there are invasion of privacy, misuse of the system, insufficiency of overall monitoring office management, lack of citizens' understanding and economical allotment of the system installation costs in installation of CCTV system. However. it is necessary to install the CCTV system for effective prevention of crime and prevention activities of security accidents and accurate PR of purposes of installing CCTV to local residents, establishing relevant laws about system misuse, allotment of equipment costs and fees by R&D of the system machinery, cost reduction method of storage, management and replacement, saving costs from co-operative attitude of government, and local autonomous entities and local residents should be involved.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.117-134
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• 2001

Quality costs seem to be one of the effective tools to assess quality management activities, but shipping industries have not controlled quality costs because of difficulty in cost itemization and cost data collection. This study has attempted to itemize shipping quality costs in detail and researches the composition of actual quality costs of sampled shipping companies in Korea. Result of research shows that stopping quality costs were composited by 24.3%, 3.8% and 71.8% of prevention costs, appraisal costs and failure costs, respectively and very high relationship between total qualify cost and other quality costs. This research also recommended practical methods for quality management by using indexes of quality costs.