Quality Control and Assurance
Introduction to Quality Control and Assurance
- Quality control and quality assurance are two crucial elements in product design and manufacturing to ensure products meet set standards and expectations.
- Quality control involves checking and testing the produced items, while quality assurance focuses on the processes to deliver a quality product.
Role of Quality Control
- Quality control is an approach focusing on identifying defects in the finished products before they reach the customer.
- Inspections and tests are carried out at different stages of production to ensure the final product meets the predetermined standards.
- Quality control helps in maintaining and improving customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and overall product excellence.
Importance of Quality Assurance
- Quality assurance is a proactive process aiming to prevent defects by focusing on the production process.
- It involves comprehensive reviews and process audits, ensuring that the systems producing the product are operating correctly.
- Quality assurance not only prevents defects but also minimises waste and saves costs, leading to more efficient and economically viable manufacturing.
Role of Quality Standards
- Quality standards, such as ISO 9000, provide guidelines to ensure consistent product quality. Compliance to these standards is often a prerequisite for global trade.
- These standards act as an assurance to customers that the product will perform as intended, increasing customer trust.
- They also provide an objective baseline for assessing the performance of a company, fostering continuous improvement of processes and products.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a step-by-step approach for identifying potential failures in a design, process, product, or service.
- It involves identifying all potential failure modes, their causes, and effects, and implementing strategies to mitigate risks.
- The integral use of FMEA in design process enhances product safety, reduces production costs, and improves reliability.
Emergence of Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a method of quality control using statistical methods.
- SPC identifies and eliminates problems and variations in the manufacturing process that might compromise product quality.
- This data-driven approach leads to process stability, improved manufacturing operations and efficiency, resulting in higher product consistency.