Quality control and quality assurance
Producing faulty goods incurs repair costs and damages the reputation of the firm. There are two main approaches to achieving quality:
- quality control
- quality assurance
Quality control
This is where finished products are checked by inspectors to see if they meet the set standard. Products are inspected at the start and the end of the production process. Any product not meeting the standards of quality set by the business will be:
- sent for rework
- discarded completely
This is a costly process. There is a high degree of wasted material, as faulty products are not identified until the end of the production process.
However, less checks are required throughout the production process. This will save the business time and money.
Quality control ensures that no faulty product reaches the consumer as all finished products are checked thoroughly.
| Benefit | Cost |
| Reduces chance of poor quality products reaching end users | Faults only found at the end of production |
| Only some employees need to be trained as inspectors to look for faults | High wastage costs |
| Reworking faulty products costs time and money |
| Benefit | Reduces chance of poor quality products reaching end users |
|---|---|
| Cost | Faults only found at the end of production |
| Benefit | Only some employees need to be trained as inspectors to look for faults |
|---|---|
| Cost | High wastage costs |
| Benefit | |
|---|---|
| Cost | Reworking faulty products costs time and money |
Quality assurance
This is where quality is built into the production process.
For example, all staff check all items at all stages of the production process for faults. In this way everyone takes responsibility for delivering quality.
Successful quality assurance:
- results in zero defect production
- aims to prevent the faulty product from being produced
With quality assurance the product is checked throughout production. This means that mistakes can be identified quickly. This will reduce waste. This in turn will save the company money.
However, this method of quality control can be costly due to the regular checks being made throughout the production process. Regular checks can also slow down production. This means lower productivity.
Example comparison of quality assurance and quality control
Quality control will check the inputs and outputs from the production process whereas quality assurance will check the product regularly throughout production.
Quality assurance reduces waste as faulty products are identified early in the production process whereas quality control will save the company time and money as less checks are required during the production process.