This guide to quality control procedures for manufacturing will help you gain a better understanding of what quality control is, as well as give you all the information you need about quality control procedures, inspections, and more.
In the manufacturing industry, there are two main goals you need to meet: delivering products on time and making sure they’re top-quality. Unfortunately, making these two goals align is no easy feat. However, it’s far from impossible!
But before we get to that, let’s discuss the term quality control. What is it, and why is it so important?
What Is Quality Control?
Ultimately, quality control is a crucial concept in any industry. Whether you’re a sweater manufacturer, or you’re in the service industry, quality control will make or break your business.
Using proven techniques that help determine product and service capabilities, quality control basically enables a company to provide a product/service that’s suitable for its intended purpose to its customers.
Obviously, these techniques are different for each product, and will also vary from service to service, however, the process remains the same:
- Recognizing the requirements for each product/service
- Determining whether it’s possible to meet those requirements
Furthermore, quality control ensures that only top-shelf products and services are released into the world. In the same way, the ones that don’t meet the recommended requirements should be discarded immediately.
What Are the Benefits of Quality Control?
Most people think that quality control only benefits customers, however, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yes, your customers will get to buy high-quality products, but, in turn, by providing those products, you will get the following:
- An increase in customer loyalty
- Guaranteed repeat business
- New customers through referrals
- An improved market position
- Positive product branding
- A decrease in product recall
In short, by ensuring product quality, you’ll get more business, and you won’t lose money due to product recall. Did you know that, in the US, one of the most frequent reasons for product recall is due to damage? Ultimately, that leads to losing millions of dollars due to faulty parts and poor quality.
With that in mind, both parties (customers and manufacturers) have a lot to gain from quality control.
Quality Control Procedures for Manufacturing
Now that you’ve gained a basic understanding of what quality control is and why it’s beneficial for your business, let’s get into the real subject of this article: quality control procedures for manufacturing.
Setting Quality Standards
Some industries already have quality requirements set by an industry association, whereas others do not. For those without set requirements, the industry needs to come up with its own.
Furthermore, the quality control standards will vary from department to department, but they should be objectively measurable. So, the quality standards for a customer service team obviously won’t be the same as the quality standards for a toy manufacturing company.
Mainly, when establishing these standards, you should consider what you expect your final product to look like. Also, factor in the longevity of the said product. In doing so, you will have created a quality control standard.
Focusing on Specific Standards
It goes without saying that every manufacturer wants to ensure top quality in all aspects of their operation. But, for starters, it’s important to focus on the measures that will have the biggest effect on your profit. Obviously, these measures will vary from product to product and industry to industry.
So, the first thing you need to do is set some standardized specifications. For example, a company that manufactures bed linen fabric should focus on the type of fabric they use, or rather, the thread count.
If their fabrics are made from a 100% cotton/poly blend, and the thread count is set at (for example) 250, then that should be the standard.
Selecting a Quality Control Method
There are two ways to perform quality control checks:
- Full product inspection
- Statistical quality control (SQC).
Full Product Inspection
Full product inspection means checking your product at the input, transformation, or output stage against standards. The people who carry out this examination are called inspectors, and they measure the quality of your product against standards. While doing so, they also separate acceptable and non-acceptable units.
After this inspection is complete, the inspectors can then look into why a product with unacceptable standards was made, and take measures to correct the mistake so it doesn’t happen again.
The frequency of these product checks depends on the cost of inspection vs. the cost of no inspection. Obviously, inspecting every product is quite costly, however, no inspection can lead to a huge loss due to product defects.
Ultimately, a better solution is to implement sample product inspection. Again, the size of the sample will depend on the required degree of precision, which varies from product to product. The higher the accuracy degree, the larger the sample.
For example, full product inspections are done when the product in question is highly valuable or tends to get rejected at one of the production stages. Meanwhile, during a sample inspection, only the sample of work is tested and inspected for acceptance/rejection of an entire lot of products.
There are two possible outcomes for a rejected sample:
- Discarding the entire lot
- Subjecting the lot to a full product inspection
If the lot is subjected to full product inspection, then only the faulty parts are rejected, whereas the good parts are retained.
Statistical quality control (SQC)
There are two ways to perform statistical quality control:
- Through acceptance sampling
- Through process sampling
Acceptance Sampling
This type of sampling should determine whether or not the product in question conforms to the design specifications. Basically, a sample of the finished product is tested against the standard quality measurements, creating an acceptable quality variation limit.
These variations can be due to chance or assignable causes.
The acceptance sampling method ensures that the amount of defective products (if any) that makes its way to the market is kept at a bare minimum.
Process Sampling
During process sampling, the products are under evaluation during the production process. That way, we can detect any potential problems well before the production stage.
If the problems/defects go beyond the tolerance limit, then we will stop the entire production process in order to make the necessary changes that will fix the problem.
Who Can Perform Quality Control Procedures for Manufacturing?
Now that we’ve explained everything you need to know about quality control procedures for manufacturing, you’re probably wondering who can perform them. Ultimately, finding a trusted quality control inspection company can be a bit daunting if you don’t know where to look. That’s where we come in.
At Jonble, our job is to ensure that your products are in top condition throughout all the stages of production. Here’s what we have to offer:
- Pre-production inspections
- First article inspections
- During production inspections
- Pre-shipment inspections
- Container loading inspections
Through our pre-production inspections, we check the raw materials (and their condition), inspect the storage, and the supplier’s production quality.
Furthermore, we inspect the size, function, and measurements of raw materials and make the required safety and reliability tests.
Through these tests, we make sure that your supplier is using the materials carefully outlined in the contract. If all is well, we then move on to the first article inspection where we check the first mass production of the product.
Next, during the production inspection, our inspector will check the final product for any defects. If everything is in order, the next step is the pre-shipment inspection. During this stage, our inspector will check a random sample of the order and conduct a safety and functionality test.
The final stage of inspection is the container loading inspection. Our inspector will check the shipping containers to ensure that your products arrive at their final destination undamaged.
Jonble’s Quality Control Procedures for Manufacturing
At Jonble, we treat every inspection with the utmost care. We know that every business is dependent on repeat customers, so we’ll make sure every order is in tip-top shape before it goes out. Our quality control procedures for manufacturing are airtight and we provide our customers with the best service each time.
Our team consists of highly-trained professionals with incredible technical expertise. The booking process is simple, and we always reply within 24 hours. We can guarantee that our inspectors will be on-site within 48 hours, and will provide you with a detailed online report on the same day of the inspection. That way you can make a timely decision.
What’s more, you can start or stop our services at your leisure, we’ll be here when you need us. We believe in complete transparency, and we provide the same level of professional service to all of our clients around the world.
If you like what you hear, contact us today so we can give you a quote. Also, don’t hesitate to request a free sample inspection report. We can’t wait to share our knowledge with you! You’re only a phone call away from turning your company into the reputable business it deserves to be!