Why Is It Important for Businesses to Practice Quality Control?

When customers feel that they can count on the consistent quality of your products, they’re more likely to give you their repeat business. Consistent quality takes hard work, attention to detail and systems for monitoring and assessing whether your products meet the standards you have set. Quality control is an ongoing process that touches everything from purchasing to manufacturing to distribution.

Tip

Quality-control processes ensure consistency and safety, earning you repeat business. They also cut wasted costs and reduce the likelihood of liability claims and lawsuits.

Reduce Variability of Materials

Although you may buy your materials from the same sources, they won’t always be the same. Variability is part of nature, and it’s not possible to make something exactly the same every time. Machines wear out and need to be calibrated. Organic materials, such as vegetables and dairy products, vary because of genetic makeup; many materials behave differently in different temperatures and weather conditions.

Even if you can’t ensure that the materials you use are absolutely consistent, you can recognize inconsistencies and develop systems to compensate for them. When it’s impossible to compensate, quality control processes guide your business in culling unsuitable items so they don’t find their way into your customers’ hands.

Boost Customer Satisfaction

Quality control is a vital element in producing high quality products that meet customer expectations. When your products do what they’re supposed to do, taste the way they’re supposed to taste and behave the same way over time, you earn repeat business. This customer loyalty saves money on marketing and advertising by providing a steady revenue stream and earning you referrals, which cost nothing and can be particularly effective for bringing in new customers.

Avoid Legal Liability

Quality control processes help your business avoid situations that cause harm to customers and lead to expensive liability claims and lawsuits. If your business makes machinery, quality control standards reduce the mistakes and inconsistencies that could make these machines unsafe. If you manufacture a food product, your quality control processes monitor temperature and foreign bodies to decrease the likelihood that you will make someone sick. Ensuring customer safety saves your business money and averts damage to your reputation. It is also simply the right thing to do.

Reduce Waste and Cut Costs

Waste is expensive, and it is more likely to occur when you don’t take quality control measures. If you don’t pay attention to detail or implement processes to reduce variability, you’ll have to throw away more finished inventory, costing you the price of the labor and materials that went into producing it. Pay attention to processes at every level so you can identify defective materials before you combine them with useful ones; this saves you the time and effort of backtracking and spending your time and money on frustrating damage control.