How to Define Quality Control


The term quality control is a function or an activity whereby performance is measured and compared against planned objectives and in case of deficiencies, necessary remedial measures are taken to ensure the achievement of organizational objectives.

Quality control is a process or a method through which one can ensure actual performance, compare it with standard and act on the difference. This term denotes all those activities, which aim at maintaining and improving the quality of certain product. It requires a thorough understanding of defective product law, as customers could take you to court for defective products that result in a loss of money for them or worse, injury.

In specific terms, the quality control involves setting of quality targets, appraisal of conformance, taking corrective action in case of deviation and planning for improvement in quality.

Evolution of quality control: The concept of quality control is not unknown. It can be traced back to the Stone Age man who examined sharpness of his stone tool to see whether the point was sharp enough that for his purpose i.e. he was assessing the qualities of the tool by comparing it with his mental picture of good tool. In this case, the Stone Age man was both the manufacturer and the user, hence he knew exactly what he wanted and thus he made efforts to attain the quality, which would meet his purpose. This scenario has changed with the progress of the civilization, which is marked by the growth in size and specialization to meet the change in the requirement of the society. With the evolution of factory system and changing production system, quality control practices are also evolved to suit the products and methods of production.

Important steps in the evolution of quality control are as follows,

  • Craftsmanship.
  • Supervisory role over a group of people doing the same type of job.
  • Inspection by separate operate person other than a man doing the work.
  • Use of techniques in quality control including Dimensional Inspection marked by statistical quality control to which design is inherently capable of providing user satisfaction can be quality of design and process quality, both together determines the production.
  • Steps in quality control program: Quality control program step involves,
  • Formulation of quality policy.
  • Working out details of product requirement, set specifications or standards on the basis of customer’s requirements, cost and profit.
  • Select inspection and setup the procedures for checking, specify inspection stages, tools and devices etc.
  • Detect the deviation from the set standards or specification.
  • Take corrective action through proper authority and make necessary changes to achieve the standards.
  • Decide on salvage method and decide how the defectives are disposed of.
  • Co-ordinate the quality programs.
  • Developing quality consciousness in the organization.

Filed Under: General How To's

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About the Author: Marie Mayle is a contributor to the MegaHowTo team, writer, and entrepreneur based in California USA. She holds a degree in Business Administration. She loves to write about business and finance issues and how to tackle them.

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