Quality Control
Quality control is focused on identifying issues with quality and initiating corrective action. Quality control processes are vital to a healthy quality control function.
Quality control is a process that evaluates output against a standard and takes corrective action when output doesn’t meet that standard.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Discuss the role of quality control in business
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Key Points
- The purpose of quality control is to make sure that certain processes perform to a company’s set standards.
- Quality control in relation to customers involves the continuous act of making sure products, designed and manufactured, are produced to meet and exceed customer needs.
- Quality should be measured differently for products and services and judged by their own set of dimensions.
- Controls include product inspection, where every product is visually examined, often with a stereo microscope to perceive fine detail before the product is sold into the external market.
- Responsibility for overall quality lies with top management. Top management must establish strategies, institute programs for quality, and motivate managers and workers.
Key Terms
- total quality management: A strategic approach to management aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes.
- organizational culture: Organizational culture is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions.
- quality control: A control, such as inspection or testing, introduced into an industrial or business process to ensure quality.
Quality can be thought of as the degree to which performance of a product or service meets or exceeds expectations. Quality control is a process that evaluates output against a standard and takes corrective action when output doesn’t meet these predetermined standards. Therefore, quality control in relation to customers would be the continuous act of making sure products, designed and manufactured, are produced to meet and exceed the needs of customers. For contract work, particularly work awarded by government agencies, quality control issues are among the top reasons for not renewing a contract.
quality control: The purpose of quality control is to make sure that certain processes are performing up to a company’s set standards.
This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:
- Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well-managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records
- Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications
- Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships
Controls include product inspection, where every product is examined visually, often using a stereo microscope for fine detail before the product is sold on the external market. Inspectors will be provided with lists and descriptions of unacceptable product defects such as cracks or surface blemishes.
An emphasis on quality control heightened during World War II. At that time quality control evolved to quality assurance and is now better known as a Strategic Approach, a tool for improving not only products but also processes and services. Quality should be measured differently for products and services, and judged by their own set of dimensions. Responsibility for overall quality lies with top management. Top management must establish strategies, institute programs for quality, and motivate managers and workers. Most of the time, managers aim to improve or maintain the quality of an organization as a whole; this is referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM involves a continual effort for quality improvement by everyone in an organization. The entire supply chain must be involved for an organization to meet and exceed goals of quality control.
Source: Lumen Learning, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-business/chapter/controlling-the-supply-chain/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.