Quality And Quality Control

Quality and Quality Control are two different things entirely but a better understanding of Quality will help you differentiate between both. This article explains Quality Control in its simplest form. After reading this article, you will be able to define and differentiate Quality from Quality Control, the objectives, techniques and importance of Quality Control likewise Quality.

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QUALITY

What Is Quality?

Quality is a complex notion and means different things to different people. It is all about meeting the requirements and expectation of buyers of a product or service. Buyers want quality that is appropriate to the price that they are willing to pay and the level of competition in the market.  Quality has six dimensions such as; performance, reliability, serviceability, conformance, durability, and aesthetics.

Objectives Of Quality.

The basic goals of quality are:

1. To increase productivity.
2. To build company’s reputation in the market.
3. To reduce wastage of resources.
4. To decrease company liability costs.
5. To increase customers loyalty and satisfaction.

Factors That Determine Right Quality.

1. Performance: The product must optimally perform its main function or task for which it is purchased for. In other words, the product must satisfy the needs and wants of the buyer.
2. Durability: Durability refers to the life of a product. A durable product performs flawlessly for a longer period. It is a sign of a good quality product. Buyers want products that can serve them for a longer period of time.
3. Reliability: It means dependability on a product. Buyers prefer to purchase and use often products which perform their main function for longer without any form of malfunction, breakdown or failures.
4. Aesthetics: It means how the product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells. That is, the product must look, feel, sound, taste, or smell very good. It must also be attractive, compact and convenient to use.
5. Reparability: The product must be designed in such a way that it can easily be repaired when a malfunction or total failure occurs. The product must be done quickly at a low repair cost. Buyers usually don’t buy products that are expensive to repair or maintain or those that take a longer period to repair.
6. Portability: The product must be small i.e it must occupy less space and have a lower weight. In words, it must be very portable and easy to carry from one place to another.

Importance of quality

Quality has the following benefits:

1. It helps to increase the level of production.
2. It helps to build a good image of an organization.
3. It boosts the company income.
4. It helps to control large market share over other competitor’s.
5. It reduces customer’s complaints.

QUALITY CONTROL

What is Quality Control?

Quality control is a process that is used to ensure a certain level of quality in product or service. It is also a set of procedures that ensure that the manufactured products or services meet the requirements of the customers. Quality control has three phases namely: product or service quality design, production/manufacturing quality and performance.

Objectives of quality control.

The main objectives of quality control are:

1. To maintain a certain level of quality in a product or service.
2. To reduce defective products during the production process.
3. To produce optimal quality at a reduced price.
4. To ensure customers satisfaction.
5. To reduce company’s cost.

Techniques Of Quality Control.

There are three techniques or procedures of quality control as noted below:

1. Inspection: It refers to the physical observation and regular checking of a product during and after production process so that the product conforms to the desired quality control. It also involves checking the purchased raw materials before the input into the production system. This technique is based on human judgment.
2. Acceptance Sampling: This method is used when there is a flaw with an inspection. It is based upon the number of product acceptability through the sampling size. The number of sampling size collected will then be compared with the acceptable product to detect if there is a deviation or not. In this case, if the deviations are less, then the product will be acceptable and vice versa.
3. Process Control: This technique is used after completing the production process. All the processed products will be properly checked to ensure certain specification. In this case, if any product failed to meet the standard requirement, it will then be re-processed. Process control is used for measuring performance.

Importance of Quality Control To A Manufacturing Industry.

The importance of quality control are:

1. It reduces scraps and wastages of material resources.
2. Defective raw-materials during production process are detected.
3. It builds customer confidence in products or services offered by the business firm.
4. It improves quality of products and services rendered.
5. It increases the non-defective number of products.

Differences Between Quality Control And Inspection.

QUALITY CONTROL

1. It is a process of ensuring that the levels of quality in a product or service are met in order to meet the need and requirement of the consumers.
2. It involves three methods i.e. inspections, acceptance sampling and process control.
3. It involves some laboratory testing in order to determine the fitness of the product.
4. It requires human and machines judgment.
5. It is very expensive.
6. It is electronically tested in nature.

INSPECTION

1. It refers to the regular checking of a product or service in order to ensure that it meets the required standard of the buyers.
2. It involves only one method i.e. by observation.
3. It does not involve any laboratory testing.
4. It requires only human judgment.
5. It is very cheap.
6. It is manually tested in nature.

Explain The Following Concepts As They Relate To Purchasing:

1. Quality Assurance: Quality assurance is a system of checks designed to ensure that products are free of faults and defects. It also involves regular checking through quality control inspection to test and monitor the quality, accuracy and fitness of the product from the design stage through to manufacture stage. The basic goal of quality assurance is to ensure that there is zero defect of the product.
2. Quality System: A quality system sets out the policies, procedures, resources, responsibilities, and infrastructures required in formulating and implementing total quality management approach.
3. Total Quality Management (TQM): TQM is a management philosophy that ensures continuous improvement in products or services offered by a company: It also aims to hold all parties involved in the production process as accountable for the overall quality of the final products or services. TQM has eight key elements namely: ethics, integrity, trust, training, teamwork, leadership, recognition, and communication.
4. Value Analysis: Value analysis is a methodical approach to sharpening the efficiency and effectiveness of any process whether product creation or service delivery. It involves breaking down a process into each individual component and considering ways to improve that component’s value as measured by cost and importance to the process. It also helps to eliminate components that are not worth the cost they require and can be replaced with an alternative. In this manner, the process for the product or service being analyzed is refined to be done at less expense.
5. Expediting: Expediting is a concept in procurement for securing the quality and timely delivery of goods. In other words, it is the process of making sure that the purchased goods arrive at the appointed date, in the agreed quality, at the agreed location that was agreed between the supplier and the customer or organization. Expediting is required in a large-scale project because a delay caused by late delivery or inferior quality will get very expensive to the organization. Due to this reason, many large companies employ expediting officers purely to focus on this process.
6. Lead Time: Lead time is the estimated period between ordering goods and receiving the goods. For instance, if your company order for 10,000 tons of cocoa on April 11 and the receiving day is April 25 the lead time is 14 days. Lead time may change according to seasons or holidays or overall demand for the product.