Quality Control:

• The process of inspecting products to ensure that they meet the required quality standards

• The traditional way of managing quality

• Involves checking and reviewing output

• Mainly about ‘detecting’ defective output- rather than preventing it

• Usually requires sampling

• Spots and removes sub-standard output

• It can be very costly

Quality control and Inspection:

• When raw materials are received before entering production

• Whilst products are going through the production process

• When products are finished- takes place before products are despatched to customers

Business benefits of quality control:

• Sub-standard output is spotted before it reaches the customer

• Minimise disruption to production

• Applies a consistent standard of quality

Some problems with quality inspection:

• Costly

• Often at the end of the production process- i.e potentially too late

• Inconsistent inspections

• Often not compatible with modern production systems

• Done by inspectors rather than workers themselves