Quality Control



by Craig Calvin


Quality control is a process used to ensure that a high quality standard is present in products or goods. Quality control may involve actions and processes as seen fit by the business in verifying and monitoring certain characteristics in a service or product.

A product or service has to be examined by the quality control officers for defects with the aim of detecting those that fail to meet the company's standards. In the event a defect is found, the quality control officer or team may have to stop production in a bid to trace the source of the error. Quality control officers or teams are not served with the responsibility of solving issues with product or service quality. Technical personnel or consultants are charged with solving quality issues.

Quality control is not limited to services and products in a business. Additionally, it evaluates the level of knowledge in staff. When an employee is inadequately trained to handle the responsibility he's charged with, quality or work will be low and affect output. Quality control should not be mistaken for Quality assurance, although the two are comparable. Quality control is product based, while Quality assurance is Process oriented.

When it comes to managing the Quality of products and services in a company, a variety of instruments are employed. There are 7 basic tools utilized in quality control. These tools are graphical techniques utilized to review and research statistical data and measure variance. The basic Quality Control instruments are;

The cause and effect diagram or the Ishikawa or Fish bone chart identifies the causes of a quality problem and tries to find a solution by categorizing causes with the aim of finding variation.

The Check Sheet is a simple document utilized in the range of data in real time at the location the data is being produced. The document is a blank form utilized to record either qualitative or quantitative data.

Control Charts, Shewhart or process - behavior charts are statistical instruments utilized to determine variance using graphs. Histograms are common graphs that are easy to understand, they show frequency distribution.

The Scatter Diagram shows pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis in order to establish a relationship.

The Pareto Chart shows the important factors on a bar chart.

Stratification is a tool that separates data collected from various sources and shows them as patterns.

For any company to be a success, the customer needs to be satisfied with the quality of service which is rendered. Quality control measures and teams must be set in place by the company's management. When a company has a bad quality control record on a contract, the chance of renewing that contract is small and clients will likely be hesitant in working with the company on future projects.




About the Author: