What is consumer risk and what is producer risk?

Consumer risk is the probability that a product will be manufactured that is defective and shipped to the customer. A person with a customer-only focus will typically want to have a very small consumer risk. A person with a producer-only focus typically is not very concerned with consumer risk. Low consumer risk can sometimes be accomplished by rigorous testing and quality control, which, when carried to an extreme in order to reach zero consumer risk, can lead to very expensive products.

Producer risk is the probability that a product will be manufactured that is good, but is rejected by the manufacturer's internal quality control processes before it is shipped to the customer. A person with a producer-only focus will typically want to have a very small producer risk. A person with a consumer-only focus typically is not very concerned with producer risk. Low producer risk can be accomplished by lax testing and quality control, which, when carried to an extreme in order to reach zero producer risk, can lead to very poorly-performing or non-yielding products.

The key to high yielding and reliable products is in achieving a balance between these two sometimes-competing goals.