Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M6741

PAF

PAF
BusinessHigh supportEconomics
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Three categories of quality costs: P (Prevention): prevention costs—preventing defects from occurring; A (Appraisal): appraisal costs—inspection and verification; F (Failure): failure costs—internal and external failure losses.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

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Reduce cognitive load

An economic perspective on quality investment. It reveals the trade-off between prevention investment and failure losses, demonstrating that "quality is free"—prevention investment can reduce total costs.

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Anchor fast decisions

Quality costs are divided into three categories: prevention (P, preventing defects), appraisal (A, detecting defects), and failure (F, losses from defects escaping). Logically, increasing P/A investment can significantly reduce F (internal rework + external claims), and total costs actually decrease—that is, "quality is free": spending money on prevention is more cost-effective than spending it on firefighting.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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