In most industries, quality assurance has a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. When it comes to manufacturing, quality plays a critical role in the safety of products, customer satisfaction and competitiveness among other companies.
Quality starts on the factory floor. The right technology, systems and procedures should be set in place to ensure quality is properly managed at every stage of production. Over time, effective quality assurance can have a lasting impact on your bottom line. Here’s how:
Customer Satisfaction
For manufacturers, precise specifications are often required to be met to ensure the product will meet the needs of the customer. Customer satisfaction plays a large role in the success of a company, and unhappy customers will lead to a loss of business and profits over time.
Quality assurance procedures should be set in place to ensure every product is meeting company and customer standards before the product leaves the facility. Manufacturers should consider creating a checklist that contains all the details that a high-quality product should have. Apple Rubber utilizes a checklist that follows a product throughout production to ensure that each part is meeting quality standards every step of the way.
Quality Impacts Sales
If customers are not satisfied with the quality of your product, they’re not likely to return for future business. Additionally, low-quality products can leave a lasting impact on a company’s reputation, which could ultimately affect future business opportunities as well.
The quality of your products directly affects sales. To prevent a negative impact, manufacturers should consider implementing a quality management system on their factory floor. Common quality management systems include:
- Standardized Systems: Follows federal codes and regulations, such as ISO certifications
- Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): Focuses on the role that teams and individuals play in quality assurance and follows a “plan, do, check, act” approach
- Total Quality Management (TQM): Based on the principle that every staff member must be committed to maintaining high standards of work throughout every aspect of operation
- Six Sigma: A data-driven approach to achieving quality perfection
Managing Waste
Overproduction, product defects and unnecessary wastes can all have a large impact on overhead costs. By implementing quality assurance standards, manufacturers can avoid product defects, customer returns and overproduction that negatively affect your bottom line.
One way to reduce waste and limit overproduction is by implementing a quality control plan. This plan should list entire manufacturing processes and everything that corresponds to it, including:
- Tools
- Characteristics
- Specifications
- Evaluation techniques
- Control methods
- Reaction plans
The goal of a quality control plan is to ensure that each individual process within the progression of production is structured to create a final product that meets customer specifications and minimizes waste along the way.
Want to learn more about our quality assurance process at Apple Rubber?
Contact an engineer today.