Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine the difficulties associated with quality costing and propose a solution based upon the use of knowledge management techniques.

Design/methodology/approach – A widely available software tool is used to create a quality costing ontology based upon the prevention appraisal failure classification of quality costs. This ontology is used for the collection, processing, sharing and use of quality cost-related knowledge. The ontology was evaluated using case study data and compared with conventional approaches to quality costing.

Findings – The quality costing ontology is easier and more efficient than conventional quality costing methods. It has greater capability in terms of the analysis and use of quality costing knowledge and overcomes the barriers to quality costing due to poor understanding and awareness.

Research limitations/implications – The quality costing ontology provides a platform for researchers to investigate quality cost behaviour within a well-structured environment. The use of alternative classifications to prevention appraisal failure in the ontology need to be investigated further.

Practical implications – Traditionally, training and education have been used to rectify poor understanding and awareness of quality costs but with limited success. The quality cost ontology provides an alternative solution that uses knowledge management (KM) technology and is based on information systems.

Originality/value – The authors could find no research or published paper that has discussed the role of KM in quality costing.