So, if all the activities we mentioned contribute to the final product or service, that means that virtually every department is involved â not just manufacturing or operations, but also human resources, accounting, marketing, and so on. This is the essence of Total Quality Management (TQM).
In economics, the law of increasing costs is a principle that states that once all factors of production (land, labor, capital) are at maximum output and efficiency, producing more will cost more than average. As production increases, the opportunity cost does as well. The best way to look at this is to review an example of an economy that only produces two things - cars and oranges. If all the resources of the economy are put into producing only oranges, there will not be any factors of production available to produce cars.
Moving along the production possibilities curve, the slope becomes steeper (that is, the absolute value of the slope increases), reaching a value of -200 (an absolute value of 200) between points J and K. This reflects the law of increasing opportunity cost and results in the convex shape for the production possibilities curve. Three Curves Three alternatives help to illustrate the connection between opportunity cost and the shape of the production possibilities curve. 1  Convex: Increasing Cost (Click the [Convex] button): This is the standard convex production possibilities curve with increasing opportunity cost. Because it best reflects the economy, it is the one most commonly seen throughout the study of economics. In this case the economy foregoes increasing amounts of one good when producing more of the other.