6

QUALITY CONTROL

CHAPTER OUTLINE
6.1 Introduction 6.7 Quality Circles
6.2 Quality 6.8 Total Quality Management (TQM)
6.3 Control 6.9 ISO 9000 Series
6.4 Inspection 6.10 Appliation ISO 9000: ISO 14000 Series
6.5 Quality Control • Exercises
6.6 Statistical Process Control • Skill Development
• Caselet

6.1 INTRODUCTION
In any business organization, profit is the ultimate goal. To achieve this, there are several
approaches. Profit may be maximized by cutting costs for the same selling price per unit. If it
is a monopolistic business, without giving much of importance to the cost reduction programs, the
price may be fixed suitably to earn sufficient profit. But, to survive in a competitive business
environment, goods and services produced by a firm should have the minimum required quality.
Extra quality means extra cost. So, the level of quality should be decided in relation to other
factors such that the product is well absorbed in the market. In all these cases, to have repeated
sales and thereby increased sales revenue, basic quality is considered to be one of the supportive
factors. Quality is a measure of how closely a good or service conforms to specified standard.
Quality standards may be any one or a combination of attributes and variables of the product
being manufactured. The attributes will include performance, reliability, appearance, commitment
to delivery time, etc., variables may be some measurement variables like, length, width, height,
diameter, surface finish, etc.

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Most of the above characteristics are related to products. Similarly, some of the quality
characteristics of services are meeting promised due dates, safety, comfort, security, less waiting
time and so forth. So, the various dimensions of quality are performance, features, reliability,
conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, perceived quality, safety, comfort, security,
commitment to due dates, less waiting time, etc.

6.2 QUALITY
Different meaning could be attached to the word quality under different circumstances. The word
quality does not mean the quality of manufactured product only. It may refer to the quality of
the process (i.e., men, material, and machines) and even that of management. Where the quality
manufactured product referred as or defined as “Quality of product as the degree in which it
fulfills the requirement of the customer. It is not absolute but it judged or realized by comparing
it with some standards”.
Quality begins with the design of a product in accordance with the customer specification
further it involved the established measurement standards, the use of proper material, selection
of suitable manufacturing process etc., quality is a relative term and it is generally used with
reference to the end use of the product.
Crosby defined as “Quality is conformance to requirement or specifications”.
Juran defined as “Quality is fitness for use”. “The Quality of a product or service is the
fitness of that product or service for meeting or exceeding its intended use as required by the
customer.”

6.2.1 Fundamental Factors Affecting Quality

The nine fundamental factors (9 M’s), which are affecting the quality of products and services,
are: markets, money, management, men, motivation, materials, machines and mechanization.
Modern information methods and mounting product requirements.
1. Market: Because of technology advancement, we could see many new products to
satisfy customer wants. At the same time, the customer wants are also changing dynamically.
So, it is the role of companies to identify needs and then meet it with existing technologies or
by developing new technologies.
2. Money: The increased global competition necessitates huge outlays for new equipments
and process. This should be rewarded by improved productivity. This is possible by minimizing
quality costs associated with the maintenance and improvements of quality level.
3. Management: Because of the increased complex structure of business organization, the
quality related responsibilities lie with persons at different levels in the organization.
4. Men: The rapid growth in technical knowledge leads to development of human resource
with different specialization. This necessitates some groups like, system engineering group to
integrate the idea of full specialization.
QUALITY CONTROL !!

5. Motivation: If we fix the responsibility of achieving quality with each individual in the
organization with proper motivation techniques, there will not be any problem in producing the
designed quality products.
6. Materials: Selection of proper materials to meet the desired tolerance limit is also an
important consideration. Quality attributes like, surface finish, strength, diameter etc., can be
obtained by proper selection of material.
7. Machines and mechanization: In order to have quality products which will lead to
higher productivity of any organization, we need to use advanced machines and mechanize
various operations.
8. Modern information methods: The modern information methods help in storing and
retrieving needed data for manufacturing, marketing and servicing.
9. Mounting product requirements: Product diversification to meet customers taste leads
to intricacy in design, manufacturing and quality standards. Hence, companies should plan adequate
system to tackle all these requirements.

6.3 CONTROL
The process through which the standards are established and met with standards is called control.
This process consists of observing our activity performance, comparing the performance with
some standard and then taking action if the observed performance is significantly too different
from the standards.
The control process involves a universal sequence of steps as follows:
1. Choose the control object
2. Choose a unit of measure
3. Set the standard value
4. Choose a sensing device which can measure
5. Measure actual performance
6. Interpret the difference between actual and standard
7. Taking action.

6.3.1 Need for Controlling Quality

In the absence of quality, the following will result:
1. No yardstick for comparing the quality of goods/services.
2. Difficulty in maintaining consistency in quality.
3. Dissatisfied customers due to increased maintenance and operating costs of products/services.
4. Increased rework cost while manufacturing products/providing services.
5. Reduced life time of the products/services.
6. Reduced flexibility with respect to usage of standard spare parts.
7. Hence, controlling quality is an essential activity.