QUALITY CONTROL

DEFINITION OF QUALITY:
 The meaning of “Quality” is closely allied to cost and
customer needs. “Quality” may simply be defined as fitness for
purpose at lowest cost.
 The component is said to possess good quality, if it works well
in the equipment for which it is meant. Quality is thus defined
as fitness for purpose.
 Quality is the ‘totality of features and characteristics’ both for
the products and services that can satisfy both the explicit and
implicit needs of the customers.
 “Quality” of any product is regarded as the degree to which it
fulfills the requirements of the customer.
 “Quality” means degree of perfection. Quality is not absolute
but it can only be judged or realized by comparing with
standards. It can be determined by some characteristics
namely, design, size, material, chemical composition,
mechanical functioning, workmanship, finish and other
properties.
MEANING OF QUALITY CONTROL
Quality Control is a systematic control of various factors that
affect the quality of the product. The various factors include
material, tools, machines, type of labour, working conditions,
measuring instruments, etc.
Quality Control can be defined as the entire collection of
activities which ensures that the operation will produce the
optimum Quality products at minimum cost.
Total Quality Control is: “An effective system for integrating the
quality development, Quality maintenance and Quality
improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization,
so as to enable production and services at the most economical
levels which allow fullcustomer satisfaction”
In the words “Quality Control” may be broadly defined as that
Industrial management technique means of which products of
uniform accepted quality are manufactured.”
Quality Control is concerned with making things right rather
than discovering and rejecting those made wrong.
In short, we can say that quality control is a technique of
management for achieving required standards of products.
FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY
 Market Research i.e. indepth into demands of purchaser.
 Money i.e. capability to invest.
 Management i.e. Management policies for quality level.
 Production methods and product design.
OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY CONTROL
 To take different measures to improve the standard of quality
of product.
 To take various steps to solve any kind of deviations in the
quality of the product during manufacturing.
 Only the products of uniform and standard quality are
allowed to be sold.
FUNCTIONS OF QUALITY CONTROL DEPARTMENT
 To suggest method and ways to prevent the manufacturing
difficulties.
 To reject the defective goods so that the products of poor
quality may not reach to the customers.
 To find out the points where the control is breaking down and
to investigate the causes of it.
 To correct the rejected goods, if it is possible. This procedure
is known as rehabilitation of defective goods.
ADVANTAGES OF QUALITY CONTROL
 Quality of product is improved which in turn increases sales.
 Scrap rejection and rework are minimized thus reducing
wastage. So the cost of manufacturing reduces.
 Good quality product improves reputation.
 Inspection cost reduces to a great extent.
 Uniformity in quality can be achieved.
 Improvement in manufacturer and consumer relations.
STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL (S.Q.C):
 Statistics: Statistics means data, a good amount of data to
obtain reliable results. The science of statistics handles this
data in order to draw certain conclusions.
 S.Q.C: This is a quality control system employing the statistical
techniques to control quality by performing inspection, testing
and analysis to conclude whether the quality of the product is
as per the laid quality standards.
“Statistical quality control can be simply defined as an
economic & effective system of maintaining & improving the
quality of outputs throughout the whole operating process of
specification, production & inspection based on continuous
testing with random samples.”
“Statistical quality control should be viewed as a kit of tools
which may influence decisions to the functions of specification,
production or inspection.
S.Q.C. uses three scientific techniques, namely;
 Sampling inspection
 Analysis of the data, and
 Control charting
ADVANTAGES OF S.Q.C
 Reduction in cost
 Greater efficiency
 Easy to apply
 Accurate prediction
 Can be used where inspection is needs destruction of items
 Early detection of faults.
PROCESS CONTROL
Under this the quality of the products is controlled while the
products are in the process of production. The process control
is secured with the technique of control charts.
The five elements of a process are:
 People , Methods/Instructions ,Equipment , and Environment
PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEMS FORMS
Process control systems can be characterized as one or more of
the following forms: Discrete, Batch and Continuous.
STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC)
SPC is an effective method of monitoring a process through the
use of control charts. Much of its power lies in the ability to
monitor both process center and its variation about that center.
By collecting data from samples at various points within the
process, variations in the process that may affect the quality of
the end product or service can be detected and corrected, thus
reducing waste as well as the likelihood that problems will be
passed on to the customer. It has an emphasis on early detection
and prevention of problems.
CONTROL CHARTS
Since variations in manufacturing process are unavoidable, the
control chart tells when to leave a process alone and thus
prevent unnecessary frequent adjustments. Control charts are
graphical representation and are based on statistical sampling
theory, according to which an adequate sized random sample is
drawn from each lot. Control charts detect variations in the
processing and warn if there is any departure from the specified
tolerance limits. These control charts immediately tell the
undesired variations and help in detecting the cause and its
removal.
In control charts, where both upper and lower values are
specified for a quality characteristic, as soon as some products
show variation outside the tolerances, a review of situation is
taken and corrective step is immediately taken.
3. In other words, control chart is:
 A device which specifies the state of statistical control,
 A device for attaining statistical control,
 A device to judge whether statistical control has been
attained or not
PURPOSE AND ADVANTAGES:
A control charts indicates whether the process is in control or
out of control.
1. It determines process variability and detects unusual
variations taking place in a process.
2. It ensures product quality level.
3. It warns in time, and if the process is rectified at that time,
scrap or percentage rejection can be reduced.
4. It provides information about the selection of process and
setting of tolerance limits.
5. Control charts build up the reputation of the organization
through customer’s satisfaction.
A control chart consists of:
 Points representing a statistic (e.g., a mean, range,
proportion) of measurements of a quality characteristic in
samples taken from the process at different times [the
data]
 The mean of this statistic using all the samples is calculated
(e.g., the mean of the means, mean of the ranges, mean of the
proportions)
 A center line is drawn at the value of the mean of the statistic
 The standard error (e.g., standard deviation/sqrt(n) for the
mean) of the statistic is also calculated using all the samples
 Upper and lower control limits (sometimes called "natural
process limits") that indicate the threshold at which the process
output is considered statistically 'unlikely' are drawn typically at
3 standard errors from the center line
 A control chart for variables is used to monitor
characteristics that can be measured and have a
continuum of values, such as height, weight, or volume.
 A control chart for attributes, on the other hand, is used to
monitor characteristics that have discrete values and can be
counted. Often they can be evaluated with a simple yes or no
decision.
COMMONLY USED CHARTS
1. (X-Bar) and R charts, for process control.
2. P chart, for analysis of fraction defectives
3. C chart, for control of number of defects per unit.
Plotting of and R charts:
The grand average (equal to the average value of all the
average )and ( is equal to the average of all the ranges R)
are found and from these we can calculate the control limits for
the and R charts. Therefore,
PROCESS OUT OF CONTROL
After computing the control limits, the next step is to determine
whether the process is in statistical control or not. If not, it
means there is an external cause that throws the process out of
control. This cause must be traced or removed so that the
process may return to operate under stable statistical
conditions.
PROCESS IN CONTROL
If the process is found to be in statistical control, a comparison
between the required specifications and the process capability
may be carried out to determine whether the two are
compatible.