5 Ways to Ensure Quality Manufacturing — A Complete Guide
Are there different ways to ensure quality manufacturing? If you get confused about the different ways of quality manufacturing, you are at the right place.
There are many different ways to make sure that the quality of the product meets the expectations of the customer.
As a manufacturer, your duty does not end after creating a product. To ensure success, you need to develop relationships between brand and customer nowadays.
Whether you run a small business or hold an international brand, your reputation is always at stake.
This article will tell you everything about quality manufacturing and how different ways improve your products’ quality.
What is quality manufacturing?
Manufacturing quality is conformance to specifications. Moreover, it is a key to differentiation and competitive advantage.
Quality of design and harmony to specification provides the fundamental basis for managing operations to make a product that meets the standards.
When you put quality on the top of your priority list, you get more than you expect. You enable your manufacturing organization and position to thrive now and get hype in the future.
However, customer expectations have risen over time. So, manufacturing quality has become an absolute requirement of a successful product.
Five ways to ensure quality manufacturing
It is important for every person working in the manufacturing sector to improve quality for success at every step constantly.
The best way to gain success is to eliminate poor quality and defects. In order to eliminate these defects, it is mandatory to adopt a strategic approach. By following these ways, you can improve the manufacturing quality.
- Develop criteria for product
- Audit suppliers
- Test the product
- Keep throughout the process
- Continuous Improvement
Develop criteria for product
For a successful product, a strong foundation is mandatory. Therefore, before starting the process, determine the criteria for the product and specifications you want to add to it. So, a comprehensive and detailed specification is essential for success.
An important component of product quality is to know your product. It requires comprehensive information about every trivial feature of the product, which helps determine how a product will turn out, like what characteristics are required to meet customers’ expectations.
For example, you are developing an app to guide tourists. Before starting working on it, lists the features you want to add.
Like maps, timers, alarms, etc., write details such as a map that will show the path and what will come in their way and how much traffic you will have to tackle on the way. Moreover, write detailed information about every feature.
Product specification should also include the defects with classification, which will later be accepted or rejected during quality checks. Moreover, add criteria of acceptance and rejection.
Audit suppliers
Factory surveys and audits are performed to make sure the working of suppliers. Moreover, it ensures that existing or potential suppliers deliver high-quality products, work efficiently, and support continuous improvement.
The requirements of audits vary according to business and many other factors. There are two commonly performed audits, including
Supplier quality system: the quality system is the key point of success. During the inspection, auditors critically evaluate the control system of new and existing suppliers.
Moreover, auditors cover many areas, including quality control methods, production, correction, inspection, test equipment, management, etc.
Capability and qualification of supplier: qualification and capabilities determine how good a supplier is in his work and how much potential he has.
Auditors usually survey the supplier and provide feedback regarding the quality, qualification, capabilities, and general operations. It is crucial information that determines if the supplier is a worthy partner or not.
Test the product
Testing is one of the fundamental ways to ensure quality manufacturing. There are hundreds of ways tools and applications have been developed to test the performance and troubleshooting of the product.
Moreover, using applicable standards regarding industry and region provides quality assurance of products throughout the process.
As a manufacturer, you can conduct testing at any phase, like during or after the completion of the process. However, proper testing may help you detect the defects or uneven standards that manage the quality of the product.
You can conduct testing before dispatching the product to the market. However, you can do testing with the help of an employee and a small group of customers.
Keep check throughout the process.
If you want the product to turn out as you wanted, keep an eye on the process if it is going great or not. Moreover, controlling quality by inspecting the process reduces the defects, risks, and production cost.
Inspection is essential to keep the process and product online. That is why; you can conduct it at any part of the process, like in process, pre-shipment, and ready to go.
However, the check aims to avoid unnecessary costs, defects and risks. This quality check usually includes:
Packaging: during packaging inspection, a drop test is usually conducted to determine carton packaging and unit integrity. Moreover, the condition of carton and labelling accuracy is also cross-checked.
Appearance: appearance is the first element that represents the sincerity of an organization. A team confirms that the product is free of any cosmetic defect like scratches or dents to ensure a good first impression.
Quality verification: includes in-process components, inputs from other resources, etc. moreover, the acceptable quality levels are cross-checked to ensure manufacturing quality.
Performance: performance inspection includes assembly and electrical testing as far as possible.
Continuous improvement
It is one of the important ways to ensure quality manufacturing. It plans the action to improve the reliability and quality of the product.
The basic concept of improvement is that product underlay unchanged produces the same result and gradually loses its importance.
To achieve better performance, it is mandatory to change the system in ways to produce better results.
A systematic, formal approach to analyzing practice performance and efforts to improve the performance result in
- Improvement in service
- Improvement in cost
- Improves the relationship with supplier and retailer
- It reduces the production cost because of less reworking and less production of waste.
- It improves the product life cycle time; because less time is spent on correcting mistakes, and it is utilized to add valuable features.
- It improves productivity
All these improvements, as mentioned above, not only help to boost the business but also retain customer trust. However there are many methods and models available to improve the quality, but it is essential to choose the model according to the nature of the product. Moreover, only suitable models can help in improving the performance.
Why does quality matter in manufacturing?
Whatever we purchase, whether it’s food, clothing, or footwear, we check the quality and durability of the product. So how can a manufacturer overlook the importance of quality in manufacturing a product?
The success of an organization depends on the quality of manufacturing and services they offer.
For a manufacturer, different factors such as safety, reliability. And efficiency affects the overall quality of the product so the satisfaction of consumers.
However, the quality can be defined and measured differently depending on the audience and nature of the product. Moreover, there are different ways to ensure quality manufacturing.
As a manufacturer, you do not interact with every consumer. So, your product is your representative. If you make a product of high quality, it will satisfy the customer, and they will acknowledge your company.
But, if a product does not live up to customers’ expectations, it will become difficult for your brand to thrive in the market.
Principles to improve manufacturing quality
If you adopt all ways to ensure manufacturing quality, you still need to consider these vital principles to make your name in the market. Here are some principles that ensure manufacturing quality such as:
- Maximum employee commitment
- Focus on customer
- Process approach
- Make decision using facts
Maximum employee commitment
All employees of the organization should be on the board to ensure the success of the product, improve sales and enhance productivity.
They should understand the plan and specification of the product. Moreover, this principle includes empowering and involving employees in recognizing their achievements and making decisions. When employees are fully involved, they feel empowered and accountable for their actions.
Focus on customer
While creating a product, it is essential to consider customer demand, need, and requirement. Moreover, when an organization understands current and future requirements and fulfils them, it makes customers satisfied. Furthermore, it increases the customer retention rate.
Process approach
It is a key element to ensure and improve manufacturing quality. This principle emphasizes effectiveness and efficiency in the organizational process. Moreover, the process approach elicits the importance of an exemplary process that results in improved quality, output, input, and waste. Moreover, it also reduces the cost.
Make decisions using facts.
Data collected after inspection of the process or product provides you insights into the quality of the product.
After analyzing the facts, make a decision instead of prediction and fiction. Moreover, data analysis helps you make better decisions and improve your understanding of your customer’s market.
These are some crucial principles that, as product manufacture, you need to consider to make your product successful.
Conclusion
Quality assurance is necessary to make your brand and product known in the market. However, if you find it difficult, we have explained different ways to ensure quality manufacturing. By following these ways, you can achieve the standards and meet the expectations of customers.
To sum up, we would suggest you keep improving the quality of your product by continuous testing, asking for experiences directly, or analyzing customer feedback. In the end, customers are the ones whose needs are important to consider and solve out. If you can retain customers and satisfy them, it is easy for you to thrive in a competitive market.
