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Quality control

Processes that maintain quality at a constant level

Quality control
Summary

Processes that maintain quality at a constant level

Quality inspector in a [[Volkseigener Betrieb]] sewing machine parts factory in Dresden, [[East Germany]], 1977
3-inch mortar]] bombs, 1943

Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements".

This approach places emphasis on three aspects (enshrined in standards such as ISO 9001):

  1. Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records
  2. Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications
  3. Soft elements, such as personnel, integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships.

Inspection is a major component of quality control, where physical product is examined visually (or the end results of a service are analyzed). Product inspectors will be provided with lists and descriptions of unacceptable product defects such as cracks or surface blemishes for example.

History and introduction

Early stone tools such as anvils had no holes and were not designed as interchangeable parts. Mass production established processes for the creation of parts and system with identical dimensions and design, but these processes are not uniform and hence some customers were unsatisfied with the result. Quality control separates the act of testing products to uncover defects from the decision to allow or deny product release, which may be determined by fiscal constraints. For contract work, particularly work awarded by government agencies, quality control issues are among the top reasons for not renewing a contract.

The simplest form of quality control was a sketch of the desired item. If the item did not match the sketch, the item was rejected, in a simple Go/no go procedure. However, manufacturers soon found it was difficult and costly to make parts be exactly like their depiction; hence around 1840 tolerance limits were introduced, wherein a design would function if its parts were measured to be within the limits. Quality was thus precisely defined using devices such as plug gauges and ring gauges. However, this did not address the problem of defective items; recycling or disposing of the waste adds to the cost of production, as does trying to reduce the defect rate. Various methods have been proposed to prioritize quality control issues and determine whether to leave them unaddressed or use quality assurance techniques to improve and stabilize production.

Notable approaches

There is a tendency for individual consultants and organizations to name their own unique approaches to quality control—a few of these have ended up in widespread use:

TerminologyApproximate year of first useDescription
Statistical quality control (SQC)1930seditor-last = Juraneditor-first = Joseph M.editor-link = Joseph M. Juranyear = 1995title = A History of Managing for Quality: The Evolution, Trends, and Future Directions of Managing for Qualitypublisher = The American Society for Quality Controllocation = Milwaukee, Wisconsinisbn = 9780873893411oclc = 32394752url-access = registrationurl = https://archive.org/details/historyofmanagin0000unse }}
Total quality control (TQC)1956Popularized by Armand V. Feigenbaum in a Harvard Business Review article and book of the same name; stresses involvement of departments in addition to production (e.g., accounting, design, finance, human resources, marketing, purchasing, sales)
Statistical process control (SPC)1960sThe use of control charts to monitor an individual industrial process and feed back performance to the operators responsible for that process; inspired by control systems
Company-wide quality control (CWQC)1968last = Ishikawafirst = Kaoruauthor-link = Kaoru Ishikawatitle = What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Wayedition = 1year = 1985publisher = Prentice-Halllocation = Englewood Cliffs, New Jerseyisbn = 978-0-13-952433-2oclc = 11467749pages = 90–91url-access = registrationurl = https://archive.org/details/whatistotalquali00ishi/page/90 }}
Total quality management (TQM)1985Quality movement originating in the United States Department of Defense that uses (in part) the techniques of statistical quality control to drive continuous organizational improvement
Six Sigma (6σ)1986Statistical quality control applied to business strategy; originated by Motorola
Lean Six Sigma (L6σ)2001title=Leaning into Six Sigma: The Path to integration of Lean Enterprise and Six Sigmaauthor1=Wheat, B.author2=Mills, C.author3=Carnell, M.publisher=Publishing Partnerspages=100year=2001isbn=9780971249103}}

In project management

In project management, quality control requires the project manager and/or the project team to inspect the accomplished work to ensure its alignment with the project scope. In practice, projects typically have a dedicated quality control team which focuses on this area.

References

References

  1. ISO 9000:2005, Clause 3.2.10
  2. Praxiom Research Group Limited. (16 August 2017). "ISO 9001 Translated Into Plain English". Praxiom Research Group Limited.
  3. Aft, L.S.. (1997). "Fundamentals of Industrial Quality Control". CRC Press.
  4. Dennis Adsit. (November 9, 2007). "What the Call Center Industry Can Learn from Manufacturing: Part I". National Association of Call Centers.
  5. Dennis Adsit. (November 23, 2007). "What the Call Center Industry Can Learn from Manufacturing: Part II". National Association of Call Centers.
  6. (1939). "Statistical method from the viewpoint of quality control". The Graduate School, The Department of Agriculture.
  7. (March 1983). "Position Classification Standard for Quality Assurance Series, GS-1910". US Office of Personnel Management.
  8. (1995). "A History of Managing for Quality: The Evolution, Trends, and Future Directions of Managing for Quality". The [[American Society for Quality.
  9. (1956). "Total Quality Control". [[Harvard University Press]].
  10. Feigenbaum, Armand Vallin. (1961). "Total Quality Control". New York, McGraw-Hill.
  11. Ishikawa, Kaoru. (1985). "What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way". [[Prentice-Hall]].
  12. Evans, James R.. (1999). "The Management and Control of Quality". South-Western College Publications.
  13. (2010-02-19). "What Is Six Sigma?". Motorola University.
  14. (2001). "Leaning into Six Sigma: The Path to integration of Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma". Publishing Partners.
  15. Phillips, Joseph. (November 2008). "Quality Control in Project Management". The Project Management Hut.
  16. Rose, K.H.. (2014). "Project Quality Management: Why, What and How". J. Ross Publishing.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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