Quality Control must be a critical item on any “To Do List” for companies exporting out of China. With the Coronavirus hitting all areas of production there are monumental risks for production. These are our top risks:
- Old Staff not returning so critical production knowledge missing
- Max. Production capacity leading to rush jobs and poor QC
- Sub Suppliers for components and materials shut forcing factories to substitute
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But first, let’s explain in details what is the QC. The Quality Control is a process by which companies verify the quality of all the steps involved in the production. In this article, you will understand the importance of it, how it works, what are the advantages of this process and finally what’s the difference between QC and QA.
The importance of Quality Control (QC) and how it works.
Firstly, a brief introduction.
QC goes beyond ordinary statistical controls and improvement methods. It implies an overview and re-evaluation of a product. The basic goal of this process is to ensure that the products or services that are provided meet specific requirements and characteristics, such as being dependable, satisfactory, safe and fiscally sound.
Companies engaged in quality control typically have a team of workers who focus on testing a number of products. The products or services that the team examine is usually chosen at random. The aim of a quality control team, called the Quality Control Inspection team, is to identify products or services that do not meet the specific standard of quality desired by the company. If a worker identify a problem, it is the job of a quality control team or professional to make sure that the problem is receiving attention and find solutions to face this issue. They might be required to stop the production or service until the problem is solved.
It is usually not the job of a quality control team to correct these quality issues. Other staff is usually involved in the process to discover the cause of quality issues and finally to fix them. After having solved the problem and the desired quality has been achieved, the production will continue as per normal.
What are the steps of an effective QC ?
In order to implement an effective QC program, a company has to first determine a standards, which consist of the specifications the product or service has to fulfill. After that, a range of QC actions need to be determined; for example, the percentage of units to be tested from each lot. The most common method is the Quality Inspection. Next, some statistics need to be collected; for example, the percentage of units that usually fail. After this, it has to be decided which action to take. For example, whether defective units need be repaired or rejected.
Finally, a QC has to be an ongoing process to ensure that corrective efforts have led into satisfactory results and also to immediately detect recurrences or new instances of trouble.
Inspection process in China
What are the advantages of the Quality Control process?
- If the brand successfully pass all the steps of the quality control, it will reinforce the brand image and so sales will increase.
- Allows to determine in advance the realistic cost of a product and so the company would be able to determine a competitive price for a market.
- It helps to minimize the costs of production because it will increase some other factors; such as efficiency, standardization, etc.
- If the company explain to its workers that the product will be evaluated by Quality Control, workers will be more disposed to work well in the production process and so be more responsible regarding the quality of the product.
What’s the difference between QC and Quality Assurance (QA)?
QC and QA are often used as synonyms.
Indeed, QA is defect orientated and so, the purpose of QA is for defect prevention. The goal of QA is to improve development and test processes so that defects do not arise when the product is being developed. On the other hand, QC is product orientated and the focus is on defect identification. The goal of QC is to identify all the defects after the production, before it is released.
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Interested in learning more about the Quality Control/Inspection? Check out these blogs!
Our team conduct quality inspection in factories to ensure that standards are met, check out our visit in a Yongkang factory
Want to learn more about the 3 types of goods’ defect? Have a look at this blog
We explained in details the different types of Quality Control services you can consider when making procurement in China.
We asked to one of our clients to give us their impression at a China factory visit. Read this article if you’re curious! It’s a series of blogs that we called “Buyer Diary”.
What is the Quality Control process?
QC goes beyond ordinary statistical controls and improvement methods. It implies an overview and re-evaluation of a product. The basic goal of this process is to ensure that the products or services that are provided meet specific requirements and characteristics, such as being dependable, satisfactory, safe and fiscally sound.
What are the different methods of the Quality Control process?
The first common method is inspection. 3 important aspects of this method are : Product Inspection, Process Inspection and then Inspection analysis. The second method is the Statistical Quality Control. 3 different parts are included in this method ; Analysis of samples, Use of control charts and Corrective measure.
How much does Quality Control cost?
It is very difficult to give an estimatin. It’s quite impossible to define the cost of ensuring quality for products since there are many factors that will impact the cost.
What are the quality control tool?
There is 7 different tool to ensure quality control ; Checklists, Fishbone diagram, Control chart, Stratification, Pareto chart, Histogram and finally Scatter Diagram
What are the working tools of a quality control inspector?
Quality control inspector use Air gages, Bore gages, Color sensors and Calipers
