Lecture on quality control

By quality we mean an attributes of the product that determines it’s fitness for
use. The range of these attributes is pretty wide – physical, chemical, aesthetic
etc.
In business, engineering, and manufacturing, quality has a pragmatic
interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something. It’s also defined
as being suitable for its intended purpose (fitness for purpose) while satisfying
customer expectations.

Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and

may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the
specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in
the market place. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree
to which the product/service was produced correctly. Support personnel may
measure quality in the degree that a product is reliable, maintainable, or
sustainable.

Quality also means a level/standard which, in turn, depends on four M’s

namely,
 Materials
 Manpower
 Machines
 Management

Quality control, or QC for short, 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".

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This approach places an emphasis on three aspects (enshrined in standards such
as ISO 9001):
(The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international
standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national
standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization
promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. It is
headquartered in Geneva.)

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.

Therefore, quality control is a powerful productivity technique for effective

diagnosis of lack of quality (or conformity to settled standards) in any of the
materials, processes, machines or end-products. It is essential that the end
products possess the qualities that the consumer expects of them, for the process
of industry depends on the successful marketing of the products.

Quality control ensures this by insisting on quality specifications all along the
line from the arrival of materials through each of their processing’s to the final
delivery of goods.

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Quality control, therefore, covers all the factors and processes of production
which may be broadly classified as:
 Quality of materials: Materials of good quality will result in smooth
processing thereby reducing the waste and increasing the output. It will also
give better finish to end products.
 Quality of manpower: Trained and qualified personnel will give increased
efficiency due to the better quality production through the application of skill
and also reduce production cost and waste.
 Quality of machines: Better quality equipment will result in efficient work
due to lack or scarcity of breakdowns and thus reduce the cost defectives.
 Quality of management: A good management is imperative for increase in
efficiency, harmony in relations, growth of business and markets.

Chance and Assignable Causes of Variation:

Variation in the quality of manufactured product in the repetitive process in
industry is inherent and inevitable.
These variations are broadly classified as being due to two causes viz.,
 Chance causes,
&
 Assignable causes.

Chance causes:
Some “stable pattern of variation” or “a constant cause system” is inherent in
any particular scheme of production and inspection. This pattern results from
many minor causes that behave in a random manner. The variation due to these
causes is beyond the control of human hand and cannot be prevented or
eliminated under any circumstance. One has got to allow for variation within
this stable pattern, usually termed as allowable variation. The range of such
variation is known as natural tolerance of the process.

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Assignable Causes:
The second type of variation attributed to any production process is due to non-
random or the so-called assignable causes and is termed as preventable
variation. The assignable causes may creep in at any stage of the process, right
from the arrival of the raw materials to the final delivery of goods. Some of the
important factors of assignable causes of variation are:
o Substandard or defective raw material
o New techniques or operations
o Negligence of the operators, wrong or improper handling of machines,
faulty equipment, unskilled or in experienced technical staff and so on.
These causes can be identified and eliminated and are to be discovered in a
production process before it goes wrong i.e., before the production becomes
defective.

Statistical Quality Control (SQC):

SQC means planned collection and effective use of data for studying causes of
variations in quality either as between processes, procedures, materials,
machines, etc., or over periods of time. This cause-effect analysis is then fed
back into the system with a view to continuous action on the processes of
handling, manufacturing, packaging, transporting and delivery at end-use.

The main purpose of SQC is to devise statistical techniques which would help
us in separating the assignable causes from the chance causes, thus enabling us
to take immediate remedial action whenever assignable causes are present. The
elimination of assignable causes of erratic fluctuations is described as bringing a
process under control.
A production process is said to be in a state of statistical control, if it is
governed by chance causes alone, in the absence of assignable causes of
variation.

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Therefore, SQC is a productivity enhancing and regulatory technique (PERT)
with three factors, Management, Methods and Mathematics. More
particularly, if we want to properly design a self-regulation system for quality,
we must look to the field of cybernetics for design information.
There are six elements to a cybernetic or self regulating system:
1. Management
2. Standard/Specification
3. Measurement/Comparison
4. Action on process/product/system
5. Information (Feed back system/Quality Information Service)
6. R & D with two objectives:
- Better quality standard or more economical quality standard.
- Better means for achieving the standard.

It is important to note that if any element of the system is missing or

mismatched, it will not function. Further, control is two-fold-controlling the
process (process control) and controlling the finished products (product
control). It is expected that items from a controlled process should have a
higher degree of conformity to specifications.

Uses of Statistical Quality Control:

We outline below briefly some of the advantages that might result when a
process is brought in good statistical control.
 The act of getting a process in statistical control involves the
identification and elimination of assignable causes of variation and
possibly the inclusion of good ones viz., new material or methods.
This (a) helps in the detection and correction of many production troubles
and (b) brings about a substantial improvement in the product quality and
reduction of spoilage and rework.

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 It tells us when to leave a process alone and when to take action to correct
troubles, thus preventing frequent and unwarranted adjustments.
 If a process in control (which is doing about all we can expect of it) is not
good enough, we shall have to make more or less a radical
(fundamental) change in the process - just meddling (tampering) with it
won’t help.
 A process in control is predictable - we know what it is going to do and
thus we can more safely guarantee the product. In the presence of good
statistical control by the supplier, the previous lots supply evidence on the
present lots, which is not usually the case if the process is not in control?
 If testing is destructive (e.g. testing the breaking strength of chalk;
proofing of ammunition, explosives, crackers, etc.), a process in control
gives confidence in the quality of untested product which is not the case
otherwise.
 It provides better quality assurance at lower inspection cost.
 Quality control finds its applications not only in the sphere of production,
but also in other areas like packaging, scrap and spoilage, recoveries,
advertising, etc. Foreign trade items of developing countries like
Bangladesh are particularly appropriate for every type of quality control
in every possible area. As a matter of fact, ‘management adult’ is a term
which implies the control of quality of management and managerial
performance.
 The very presence of a quality control scheme in a plant improves and
alerts the personnel. Such a scheme is likely to breed ‘quality
consciousnesses’ throughout the organization which is of immense long-
run value.
 SQC reduce waste of time and material to the absolute minimum by
giving an early warning about the occurrence of defects. Saving in terms

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 of the factors stated above means less cost of production and hence may
ultimately lead to more profits.

An SQC department is thus an essential part of a modern plan, and its important
functions are as follows:
 Evaluation of quality standards of incoming materials, products in
process and of finished goods.
 Judging the conformity of the process to established standards and taking
suitable action when deviations are noted.
 Evaluation of optimum quality obtainable under given conditions.
 Improvement of quality and productivity by process control and
experimentation.

A substantial increase in productivity, basic savings in costs, and

improvement in quality of products are attainable in any industry by means of
the application of quality control techniques.
The basic pre-requisites for successful quality control applications are:
 An alert and progressive management
 Competent technical staff searching for new methods and new
economics
 Competitive or social pressures for technical, and
 The training of top management staffs in new statistical methods.

Process and Product Control:

The main objective in any production process is to control and maintain the
quality of the manufactured product so that it conforms to specified quality
standards. In other words, we want to ensure that the proportion of defective
items in the manufactured product is not too large. This is called ‘process
control’ and is achieved through the technique of control charts pioneered by
W.A. Shewhart.
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On the other hand, by product control we mean controlling the quality of the
product by critical examination at strategic points and this is achieved through
‘Sampling Inspection Plans’ pioneered by Dodge and Romig. Product control
aims at guaranteeing a certain quality level to the consumer regardless of what
quality level is being maintained by the producer. In other words, it attempts to
ensure that the product marketed by sale department does not contain a large
number of defective (unsatisfactory) items.