How we source rework cost figures
Cost ranges on this site are based on public reference material across the relevant landscape. The publishers below are representative of the kind of source that informs our positioning, not an exhaustive extraction map per figure. A specific figure on a specific page is not necessarily anchored to a single named publisher.
Sources
- Construction Industry Institute (CII) research. Published rework cost research from the Construction Industry Institute, covering the percentage of project value typically lost to field rework on commercial and infrastructure projects.
- Software-engineering rework research. Capers Jones / Software Engineering Institute (SEI) research on defect-removal cost curves, IBM Systems Sciences Institute defect-cost-by-phase data, and Stripe Developer Coefficient survey data.
- Manufacturing scrap and rework reporting. Public Six Sigma / Lean manufacturing case studies, ASQ (American Society for Quality) Cost of Quality surveys, and named-organisation public reports of rework cost as a percentage of cost of goods sold.
- Knowledge-work productivity research. Public Asana Anatomy of Work Index, Atlassian Work Tax research, McKinsey time-on-task surveys (where pricing context is published).
What we deliberately do not publish
- Single-quote anecdotes without aggregation. Where a specific organisation's rework cost is known to us through public reporting, it is described as a case study; aggregate benchmarks are reserved for cases where multiple sources align.
- Predictions of organisation-specific rework cost. Calculator outputs are working bands, not specific predictions. Rework rate depends on local culture, tooling, governance and contract structure — none of which the calculator can model.
- Personal organisation data. Calculators run entirely in your browser. Your project-size and team-cost inputs are not transmitted, logged, or stored.
Update cadence
Site values update only when the underlying reality changes. Triggers:
- New CII rework-cost research edition
- Major Capers Jones / SEI software defect-cost dataset update
- ASQ Cost of Quality survey re-publication
- Material change in published manufacturing scrap-rate benchmarks
Cosmetic date bumps are not made.
Editorial position
This site is operated by Digital Signet, an independent AI-development studio. Digital Signet does not sell quality-management software, does not run a Six Sigma certification practice, does not act as a process-improvement consultancy, and does not accept paid placements from any vendor in the quality-tooling space. See /about for the operator and the wider network.
Editorial direction is set by Oliver Wakefield-Smith. Drafts are produced via Digital Signet's autonomous AI development methodology and reviewed against the editorial framework before publication.
Contact
For methodology questions, corrections, or scenarios that don't fit cleanly: [email protected].