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Management of quality control
The definition of quality control is an ever--changing concept. One concept of zero defects may be applicable to some businesses where the concept of meeting or exceeding customer expectations may be appropriate to others. The business must define its own quality standards before a managerial approach is recognized. It must also meet the quality demands of the end user, the customer.
Managing quality control requires the input from a balanced group of individuals within the organization. Quality control management is the process of monitoring, maintaining and improving the quality of the output at each production operation to meet or exceed the consumer demand.
A business must have a clear understanding of its customer’s quality requirements and must develop a plan to meet them. A supervisor’s role is to utilize proper production methodologies that produce quality parts. A production employee’s responsibility is to produce parts that meet quality standards. In the end, quality within an organization is everybody’s responsibility.
If the entire organization is involved in improving quality, training in the management philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) is critical. Keep in mind: Some employees resist change, so implementing TQM must be done with careful consideration and planning.
Initially, a company should completely understand the quality needs of the customer. TQM is determined from your customer base using surveys, sales calls, customer interviews or other consumer interaction. Initiated and structured by the CEO, TQM needs to be embraced by all employees for it to be effective.
In addition to customer and business interaction, TQM requires production of products that the consumer wants. Also, promote doing the job correctly the first time. Companies can literally go out of business by repeatedly producing parts due to quality and production failures. In the short term, companies may produce without making the necessary profit margins to maintain a viable business; continued loss of profit margins will cause a company to fail.
Define goals and outline the steps each department must take to achieve these goals. For example, a typical goal for a company may be to reduce defective parts from each department. Each department must determine the cause of the quality issue while making improvements to the machinery or personnel to achieve these goals.
