Current World Environment

Introduction

The most important word in the progress of any industry is quality. By quality we mean an attribute of the product determines its fitness for use. The range of these attributes is pretty wide – Physical, Chemical, aesthetic etc. A product may have several aspects of quality as well as an over all quality which is something more than the sum of its individual quality aspects. Quality means a level which in turn, depends on four M’s besides many other factors which is materials, man power, machines and management.

Literature Review

Quality assurance is the products used by our society. Product consist of manufactured goods, such as automobiles, computers, clothing, public transportation and health care. Quality assurance principles apply to both manufactured goods and services.

It is essential that products meet the requirement of those who use them. Therefore, the definition of quality is that quality means fitness for use. These are two general aspects of quality: quality of design and quality of conformance. All goods and services are produced in various grades or level of quality are international and consequently, the appropriate technical term is quality of design.

The quality of conformance is how will the product conforms to the specifications and tolerance required by the design. Quality of conformance is influenced a no. of factors, including the choice of manufacturing processes, the training and supervision of the work force, the type of the quality assurance system i.e. process controls tests inspection activities etc, used, the extent to which these quality assurance procedures are followed and the motivation of the work force to achieve quality. To achieve quality of design requires conscious decisions during the product or process design stage to ensure that certain functional requirements will be satisfactory met. Designing quality into the product in this fashion often results in a higher product cost. Quality of conformance are often made by changing certain aspects of the quality-assurance system. Such as the types of inspection in total costs, because it leads to reduced scrap, rework, and a smaller fraction of non-conforming products and services.

Quality is becoming the basic consumer decision factor in many products and services. This phenomenon is widespread, regardless of whether the consumer is an individual an industrial corporation, a military defence program, or a retail store. Quality is a key factor leading to business success, growth and enhanced competitive position. There is a substantial return on investment from an effective quality assurance program that provides increased probability to firms that effectively employ quality as a business strategy.

Quality control determines what, when and how much to inspect and what measures to take so that defective items are not produced. It is preventives rather than a corrective measure. The corrective action rests with the personnel.

Quality control is one of the important functions of the management. It is a system set of tools and techniques by which products are made to comply with the specification at minimum cost to the firm. Quality control is concerned with making things right rather than discovering and rejecting those made wrong.

Quality is not merely the responsibility of quality control department. Quality control is an integrated function. The quality of a product can be directly traced to the quality of production aids (tools, tigs and fixtures, measuring instruments); quality of manufacturing process and manufacturing facilities employed; quality of workmanship, and the quality of systems set to regulate and control work on the shop floor.

Quality control thus aims to produce, better quality products at the least cost to the company and inspection is one of the tools used by it to achieve this objective. Quality control and inspection are, therefore, closely related. The two functions were formerly combined, inspection being a part of quality control or vice versa.

One simply way to control the quality is to conduct 100% inspection. However it will be very costly and time consuming. Now a days statistics is used for quality control and this method is known as statistical quality control and this method is known as statistical quality control.

For ex. In the area of ever growing competition has become absolutely necessary for a businessman to keep a continuous watch over the quality of the goods produced moving once bought the product, if the consumers feel satisfied with regard to its quality, price etc., a kind of goodwill for the product is developed which helps to increase the sales. However, if the consumers are not happy with the quality of the product and their complaints are not given proper attention, it shall be impossible for the manufacturer, to continue in the market. Either he would have to improve the quality or else be forced to quit the market to other producers who might start capturing the market by offering better quality.

Conclusion

Quality does not always imply the highest standards of manufacturer for the standard required is often deliberately below the highest standard possible. It is generally the consistency in quality standards which represents the most desirable situation rather than the absolute standards which is maintained.

With the use of quality control we can setup standards of quality acceptable to the customer and economical to achieve and maintain and we can locate and identify the process faults in order to control the defectives, scrap and waste. With the use of quality control we can take necessary corrective measures to maintain the quality of the products and off course we can ensure that sub-standard products do not reach the customers and achieve better utilization of raw materials and equipments.

References
 

1. Chiu, W.K. and G.B. Wetherill, “QualityControl Practices”, International Journal of Production Research, 13 (1975).
2. Duncan, A.J. “Quality Control and Industrial Statistics” 4th Ed., Irwin, Homewood III (1974).
3. Jurnan, J.M. and F.M. Gryna, Jr. “QualityPlanning and Analysis” 2nd Ed., McGraw Hill,New York (1980).
4. Montgomerey, D.C. “Introduction to StatisticalQuality Control” John Willey and Sons, 2ndEdition (1991).
5. Sanigo, E.M. and L.E. Shirland  “Quality Control in Practice – A survey” QualityProgress Vol. 10 (1977).