Is In Process Quality Inspection Necessary？

The topic of “quality is caused by producing or inspection” has always been the focus of debate in the business community: producers say that quality is by inspection, whether it is in-process quality inspection or finished product inspection, as long as there are inferior products entering the market, it means that the inspectors fail to handle it properly; Inspectors say quality is produced. If producers do not produce substandard products, there will be no inferior products on the market. Today, many companies, once they have quality problems, push the responsibility to the quality department, believing that this is the responsibility of the quality department, because many companies have the following wrong ideas:
1. Allowing a few bad and unexpected flaws is inevitable;
2. Quality is the responsibility of the quality control department;
3. Pay attention to the inspection of products only, and inspectors need to be responsible for solving defective products;
4. There was a problem, and it was agreed that it was a matter for the quality department.

Is In Process Quality Inspection Necessary？

The topic of “quality is caused by producing or inspection” has always been the focus of debate in the business community: producers say that quality is by inspection, whether it is in-process quality inspection or finished product inspection, as long as there are inferior products entering the market, it means that the inspectors fail to handle it properly; Inspectors say quality is produced. If producers do not produce substandard products, there will be no inferior products on the market. Today, many companies, once they have quality problems, push the responsibility to the quality department, believing that this is the responsibility of the quality department, because many companies have the following wrong ideas:
1. Allowing a few bad and unexpected flaws is inevitable;
2. Quality is the responsibility of the quality control department;
3. Pay attention to the inspection of products only, and inspectors need to be responsible for solving defective products;
4. There was a problem, and it was agreed that it was a matter for the quality department.

I think many colleagues who do quality work in the factory have more or less experienced this feeling: often when they write reports, the quality department does it by itself, while other departments basically don’t care. The boss thinks quality is not very important, research and development is very important, and making money is more important. Therefore, the quality department does not have any position in the company, and often speaks a few words of truth, then it is time to be dismissed.

So, does quality cause by producing or inspection? This is a common concern of international importers and manufacturers.

First of all, we should analyze the relationship between first and second, initiative and passivity. As we all know, even if in-process quality inspection is carried out on the production line,  the production is before the inspection. In other words, only if you produce the product can you inspect it. If you don’t have the product, you can’t inspect it. How can you get a good or bad result?

Obviously, production is initiative and inspection is passive. Early quality management was limited to quality inspection, and only the quality of products was checked afterwards, not in-process quality inspection. However, experience has proved that the quality of products can be guaranteed only if every link in the production process is carried out in strict accordance with the requirements of the production process and operation instructions. If in-process quality inspection is ignored and only finished products are inspected, more waste products may be produced due to defects in intermediate links, after all, quality inspection can only eliminate defective products and waste products. Not only increases costs, but also affects cooperation between factories and importers That is to say, the quality control should not only be controlled after the event, but also focus on the manufacturing stage, that is, in-process quality inspection.

To give a few examples:

1. The engineering masterbatch produced by Company A is not strictly controlled in color, resulting in color difference of the plastic parts produced by the user B Company, which results in customers no longer using the plastic products produced by Company A.
2. Due to the lack of strict control of plastic moisture, various bubbles appeared in plastic products, resulting in a large number of substandard products. All the last dozens of tons of plastic were returned and compensation was made for the losses already caused.
   For plastic products that have quality problems due to not attaching importance to in-process quality inspection, only in Pre Shipment Inspection has found frequent cases of quality problems.Such a situation will undoubtedly bring great trouble to importers and manufacturers.

However, does the importer think the final inspection is completely unnecessary? Of course not! CQI believes that every link in the quality management system requires quality control, rather than giving preference to one another.

First of all, establish the quality of prevention awareness:
” The quality of the product is produced and designed, not only by inspection, and things will be done right in the first place.” This is not a slogan, it well reflects the preventive nature of product quality.It will be difficult to control product quality without in-process quality inspection if enterprise quality control does not start from the source. Even if a large amount of inspection manpower is put into production to check, including inspection by a third party inspection agency hired by the importer, a large number of defective products or even waste products may be produced and the cost of the products will be greatly increased. Besides, some product quality problems cannot be found and remedied in the following process, which requires us to do things well in the first place to prevent quality problems.

Secondly, set up the procedural consciousness of quality:
The quality management is the whole process and the whole company, and the work between each process and all departments of the company must be orderly and effective, requiring all quality management personnel and operators to strictly follow the procedures. If they do not follow the procedures, the chances of making mistakes will increase and the quality of the products will not be guaranteed.

Finally, make good use of the role of inspection:
Quality improvement is a continuous and perfect process. Through in-process quality inspection and finished product inspection, unqualified products are found, lessons are learned, and process technology is improved and strengthened to produce better quality products.
Therefore, it is better to add an inspection procedure than to send unqualified products directly to consumers without inspection. Return and Complain.

CQI5 is committed to providing importers worldwide with product quality inspection services that far exceed those of our peers. If you are planning to import or have imported from China or Southeast Asian countries, please contact us cs’@’cqipro.com to learn more about how we can make your imports safer.

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