Edwards Deming, a pioneer in the area of statistical quality control, stated, "The cost of poor quality is unknown and unknowable." The quality categories-internal failure, external failure, prevention, and appraisal-are used to categorize costs from the general ledger for use by management.

a. Identify the category of quality cost to which Deming most likely refers. Justify your answer.

b. Which of the four quality cost categories is most controllable by management in the short run? Explain.