Quality control is the process of ensuring that products have standard or uniform quality
- It aims to reduce any problems before a product reaches the end of the production cycle
- All employees have to be committed to controlling the quality for it to be effective
One form of quality control is TQM (Total Quality Management)
Features of TQM:
- Quality Circles – Workers meet to discuss issues relating to quality in the business, this can also act as a motivator to employees that are involved
- Zero defects – these are systems that make sure no products leave the business with defects
- Statistical Process Control – this describes statistics which are generated to enable the business to evaluate their quality procedures
Quality Assurance
- This looks at guaranteeing all stages in the production process leading to high quality products
- The emphasis is on preventing mistakes
- Self checking is a key part of quality assurance
- Self checking is where workers check their own work
Government Regulations (UK)
- The UK government have a number of regulations and standards regarding quality
- These include: ISO –ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.These are quality standards business have to adhere to
- British Standards Institution (BSI) – The Kitemark and the CE mark are both important standards of quality.
