Comparing Quality Inspection and Quality Control
There are many subtle differences between QI and QC. These processes do not only benefit the marketing sector but it also benefits other sectors.
When items are manufactured, there is a need for quality inspection when the items are completed. Here trained inspectors use testing, tools, and standards of customers that are very demanding. Quality issues are being identified by QI after which they inform the managers who are accountable and advise them on how to solve the problem.
In Quality control or QC, products are created and subjected to QI afterward. IN QC, it is during the development and manufacturing process that errors and issues are identified and corrected. A company with core value and goal of producing quality products, then there will be a great success with QC.
The process of QI and QC are complicated processes. In QI the finished product is inspected. QI is done by an inspector, a manager, a third-party testing service, or the customers themselves.
For food processing facilities, for example, poor quality items are not allowed to reach the market so they are set aside by QI. There are rejected goods that are recycled. Checklists, visual guides, chemical testing, and other tools are used to sort poor quality products from good products quickly.
In QC, poor quality products are prevented from being produced. Before inspection, QC makes sure that only good products reach QI. The main focus of QC is to find and fix sources of error, malfunction, or weakness.
When things are corrected at the point of failure by QC, it reduces or eliminated QI and this shows that feedback is king. In order to find problems and repair or reconfigure the process, there is inspection done of all process points. Tools, talent, materials, machines, or even temperature and lighting at the work station are the sources of problems. High-volume and high-quality feedback is needed from QI if QC is to perform well.
Most business used to isolate the QC and QI functions. There is more interaction today between QI and QC where QI provides QC with important data so that businesses are free of error.
Before shipment, QI is done. If QI testing is limited to just a segment of the products, then shipment delays can be avoided. And they assume that this represents a statistically-sound sample. This sample is checked for workmanship, safety, functionality, and performance before delivery. Those who purchase these products also help in the process by inspecting deliveries as they arrive for their own set of standards. When there is customer feedback, there is an improvement of the supply chain. It is important for business owner to weight the cost of inspection against the value of the goods produced. Take SafetyChain, this food quality management software will manage the costs as well as the process.