Quality Management Definition
- Quality management is a set of practices that focuses on producing products of consistent required quality.
- Designers should ensure that the quality of products is consistent through development of detailed manufacturing requirements.
- They also need to focus on the means to achieve it: the importance of quality management through quality control (QC), statistical process control (SPC) and quality assurance (QA).
Quality Control
- Quality management involved in development systems to ensure that products (or services) are designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements and expectations.
- Quality control at the source eliminates waste from defects as workers are responsible for the quality of the work they do.
- Tolerances are defined at the design stage of the machinery.
- Parts not within tolerance need to be reworked or scrapped. Continuous monitoring ensures that the machines perform to the predetermined standard/quality.
- Tolerances are the acceptable amount by which a product’s size, weight etc. can differ to that stated in the specification.
Quality Assurance
- Quality assurance covers all activities from design to documentation.
- It includes:
The regulation of quality of raw materials
Assemblies
Products and components
Services related to production
Management
Inspection processes.
Statistical Process Control
- A quality control tool that uses statistical methods to ensure a process is operating at its most efficient.
- Quality management focuses on producing products of consistent required quality.
- SPC is a quality control tool that uses statistical methods to ensure a process is operating at its most efficient.
- This is achieved through measuring aspects of a component to ensure that it meets the required standard throughout its production in order to eliminate waste.
Quality Assurance vs Quality Control
Quality Assurance
- Quality Assurance is an overall development and management process whilst Quality Control is product oriented and comes as part of the overall Quality Assurance package.
- Quality Assurance includes a planned system of review procedures conducted by personnel not directly involved in the development process.
- Assurance: to be certain beforehand.
- Process oriented: deals with developing processes and systems that align with quality management.
- Proactive.
- Prevent defects.
- Focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.
- SPC as a tool; this emphasizes early detection and prevention of problems.
Quality Control
- Quality Control is a system of routine technical activities, to measure and control the quality of the inventory as it is being developed.
- Quality Control includes general methods such as accuracy checks on data acquisition and calculation.
- Control: it is a check-up during the production process.
- Product oriented: deals with monitoring products.
- Reactive.
- Finds defects
- Focused on fulfilling quality requirements.
- Testing and inspecting if parts/products are within tolerance.