Product Design (Quality Assurance Quality Control)

This is the overall approach in an organisation to ensure high standards of designing & manufacture.

The following are issues that affect consumer choice:

Design – influenced greatly by appearance.

Manufacture – build quality.

Performance – if it functions as expected.

Customer satisfaction – cost & quality in harmony.

Organisations that achieve the highest standards are awarded an international standard of quality.

This is a system of inspecting, testing to ensure standards are met.        

The results are recorded & reported.

A sample of components are subjected to rigorous tests and the results recorded.

It may be noticed that a part of the production process produces components close to unacceptable tolerance limits.

Tolerance –the extent to which the size of a component must be accurate. This is done by measuring, sometimes with special gauges.

Inspection is examining materials, accuracy and the quality of appearance.

Testing involves performance and determines function, life expectancy & durability in adverse conditions.