Industrial Cleaning, Washing & Parts Cleanliness worked example

Contamination Failure Cost at 72% failure cost scope included: a worked example

This worked example runs the contamination failure cost numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 72% failure cost scope included instead of the typical 100%. Estimate financial exposure from contamination failures using failed part count, cost per failure, scope, and fixed containment costs.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Contaminated or failed parts: 85 parts (held at the documented default)
  • Cost per contamination failure: 240 $ / part (held at the documented default)
  • Failure cost scope included: 72 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 100)
  • Fixed containment and customer response cost: 7,500 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Variable contamination failure cost = contaminated or failed parts × cost per contamination failure × failure cost scope included.
  • Total contamination failure cost works out to 22,188 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Cost per contamination failure works out to 261 $ / part at these inputs.
  • Variable contamination failure cost works out to 14,688 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed containment and customer response cost works out to 7,500 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where failure cost scope included sits at 100% and the headline result is 27,900 $, this scenario comes in 20.47% below the baseline at 22,188 $.
  • Use it after a cleanliness escape, when building a cost-of-poor-quality case, or to justify capital for cleaning and filtration upgrades. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Total contamination failure cost: 22,188 $ (headline result)
  • Cost per contamination failure: 261 $ / part
  • Variable contamination failure cost: 14,688 $
  • Fixed containment and customer response cost: 7,500 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Contamination Failure Cost calculator, set failure cost scope included to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.