What is the importance of quality in manufacturing?

What is the Importance of Quality in Manufacturing?

Quality in manufacturing is a reflection of the overall process of quality control. The pursuit of quality has to be everyone’s responsibility at each stage of the manufacturing process. Not only do quality products help maintain the integrity of the business, but there are legal and financial ramifications when defective products are released to the public. The responsibility of quality control for manufacturing is to ensure all products are free from defects, the process reduces waste, and the product meets the customer’s expectations before it leaves the manufacturing facility. This requires testing and assessment throughout the manufacturing process as well as systems of compliance.

But how do you define quality overall? And what are you looking for in production that indicates a quality process? How does the elimination of waste contribute to quality? We’ll look at these questions to better understand the importance of quality in manufacturing.

Why is Quality Important in Manufacturing?

The importance of quality in manufacturing goes beyond providing the consumer with a product they can trust. Yes, that’s a key tenet. But quality is a holistic endeavor that affects all parts of the business, including workplace compliance, risk management, product assurance, consistency, and even innovation.

Below are some of the reasons quality is important in manufacturing.

Reliable products – From a business perspective, consumers favor products that are reliable and lasting, and those products are produced by manufacturing facilities with quality compliance processes in place.

Safe products– perhaps the most critical element is that manufacturers have to be able to ensure their products are safe to use.

Compliance – There are many rules and regulations for manufacturers to adhere to, and compliance is a key issue of quality in order to prevent delays in production and avoid fines.

Consistency – When the process is focused on quality, all products have to meet the same standard of excellence. You can promise the same quality product from any production line.

Waste reduction – The business saves money when material resources are conserved and used wisely in the production process.

Minimizing risk – Reduce the potential for errors or defects when you standardize the manufacturing process. A rigorous QC process identifies root causes quickly when there is a problem.

Continuous improvement – The path narrows as you become closer and closer to the perfect products. Quality is about always improving the process to create a better product.

What Does Quality Mean in Manufacturing?

Quality is too broad of a term to use to be able to develop any real strategy when it comes to the manufacturing process. Marketing might use general phrases like, “A product we can stand behind,” and businesses will boast of a methodical process that takes longer to get done right and uses only the finest materials.

Still, these are somewhat aimless ways of defining quality.

Quality in the manufacturing industry relies on conformance to specifications. Once a manufacturing-based quality example is defined, the rest of the process is about meeting expectations in every replication of the product. You can boil this down to three main components: design, quality control, and quality management.

Design – Quality can only improve so much on a mediocre design. The core product has to be of sound design, including materials, functionality, and longevity.

Quality control – Ensuring waste is reduced during manufacturing, defects are eliminated, and the level of quality always improves.

Quality management – Do all activities and tasks involved in the manufacturing process accomplish the desired level of excellence? Quality management is concerned with the overall process.

What is Quality Control in Manufacturing?

Quality control in manufacturing is the process of evaluating products after they’ve been completed. This allows the root cause of a defeat to be identified quickly. In lean manufacturing, all production is halted when a defect is identified in a product. This reflects the importance of locating root causes. Otherwise, the entire production batch is at risk of including defective products.

Until they can spot where the problem is occurring, nothing is produced. For manufacturers, this ensures a constant assessment of their processes to catch mistakes early on.

What is Quality in Manufacturing?

Much of quality in manufacturing comes down to organization and standardization: every stage of the manufacturing process should have a clear role to play, and everything should be categorized, even up to the point that you label and track products as they move through the manufacturing process. In certain highly-regulated industries, this information supports compliance as well.

DuraMark Technologies understands the need for quality control in the manufacturing industry, and they’ve been able to help businesses by providing quality labels and labeling systems to clearly mark the status of a part in the production cycle. This level of organization helps businesses keep track of products at every stage of the process, which improves quality and provides transparency. Labeling can also help business maintain compliance by identifying non-conforming parts so they never reach customers.

DuraMark makes quality individualized labels for every aspect of your business. Our completely automated process allows you to know with certainty that the labels will be printed accurately, durably, and quickly. Connect with us directly to talk about how labeling can improve your quality control processes, and we’d be glad to discuss some of the solutions we provide.