Why A Company Needs An Incoming Quality Control Process
Incoming quality control is a very crucial process before starting production. In this process, companies inspect the quality of the material. Good material is very important for creating high-quality products.
Before start manufacturing, you must pass the material from the incoming quality control process. This process has three sub-processes. So you can supervise the parts properly in each step.
For incoming quality assurance, follow the steps below to achieve better results:
- IQC Incoming Quality Control
The material passes through this process before assembling. Companies use this process to detect different non-quality materials. You can consider it is a raw material inspection quality control process.
Incoming Quality inspection activities:
- Checklist scrutiny: Companies perform this activity to check the requirements.
- Input material sampling: It happens under different incoming quality control standards.
- Incoming quality check: Engineers provide a practical and visual outline of material samples.
- Supplier assessment: Assessment is an experience-based activity.
This process repeats until all materials pass the inspection test.
- In-Process Quality Control System
As the name suggests, it is an in-process IQC inspection process. This process makes sure the correct assembling of material. If an error occurs during assembling, this process will detect that.
IPQC Events:
- Inspection of composite material: It happens according to the incoming quality control standards.
- Performance audit: This activity helps that everything is going on according to the incoming inspection standard or principles. So engineers can find out different possible improvements.
- Statistic control: This activity helps to control deviations.
- Outgoing Quality Assurance
It is the last step in quality assurance. This process makes sure that all components are flawless and ready to use.
Different activities of OQA:
- Final Inspection: Engineers perform different functionality tests.
- FAI: It stands for First Article Inspection.
- Assessments: This activity helps to find out the reliability of components.
- Review: It is the final approval of checkpoints.
- Analysis: After the detailed analysis, the incoming quality inspection team generates a cancellation or clearance report.
Incoming quality assurance is imperative for all manufacturers. You can’t build a safe house without quality components. Similarly, you can’t assemble reliable products until you use quality goods.
You need to pass through all components from this process for quality assurance. No company should compromise on the raw material inspection quality control.
Majority companies have expertise in a few production processes i.e. product assembly. They rely on the raw materials provided by the sub-suppliers. So manufacturers assume that the quality of the packaging provided by the suppliers meets the quality of their standards.
Many manufacturers negotiate pricing with suppliers. They convince suppliers to provide materials at a lower cost. As a result, suppliers reduce the quality of the components.
Suppliers may use substandard material. For example, they can use low-quality fabric rather than the standard one. Similarly, they can recoup their cost margin by providing the lower-cost alternative.
Importers don’t face only quality problems when working with new suppliers. They also face quality issues from the suppliers having a long-established association. Suppliers don’t drop the quality of the products instantly.
Quality issues can occur unconsciously. They may fail to meet your exact needs. As a result, you will receive poor-quality components. So it will be difficult for you to notice any change in quality. You can only notice a drop in quality by following the incoming quality control principles.
It is very difficult to check thousands of components for quality assurance. So you can’t test each component. According to this principle, a company just checks a few samples of pieces. For example, a company receives a batch of one thousand pieces. Then, they will pick 30 out of all pieces for testing. If 2 or more pieces fail the test, there will be a question mark on the quality of the components.
Besides, some companies define the level of tolerable risk. When the risk exceeds the tolerable level, the company can refuse quality. Here are some practical terms for these principles:
- AQL: It defines an Acceptable Quality Level.
- NQT: It stands for Quality Level Tolerated.
Two terms shows the types of risk:
- Accept a bad: It means if you accept a bad quality product, the consumer will be at risk. Because bad components will drop the quality of their product.
- Reject a good: Rejection puts a supplier at risk.
You are now familiar with the importance of incoming quality inspection procedures. This process is very helpful to make your product flawless. So you can easily prevent your products from defects.
Let’s apprehend it with an example. Suppose you are a smartphone manufacturer. Your suppliers deliver some printed circuit boards. They don’t pass these boards through incoming quality inspection procedures.
Later on, you find a key issue in the circuit board. The issue affects the entire functionality of the product. What will you do then? Here are two possible scenarios:
- If the issue occurs in 1 or two pieces, it is easy to resolve the issue. Suppliers will disassemble the boards and resolve the defects.
- However, if the issue occurs in the majority of the components. Then, it can result in delayed shipment. Plus, reworks can cost more.
Suppliers or manufacturers buy raw components in a very high quantity. Because they need to clear multiple orders. If most of the components have a fault, it can affect the entire quantity of your order. Placing a new order is a time-consuming job. So a new order will waste you’re a lot of time.
What if a problem occurs during the assembling process? It will be even more time-consuming. You will have to halt the entire process of assembling components. At this stage, majority components will become out of repair. As a result, you will have to place a new order. It will waste a lot of time and money. Therefore, an incoming quality check is very important for manufacturers and assemblers.
So far you have learned about the quality assurance principle. And why this principle has massive importance? But you might be thinking about how to check the quality of material at a standard level. How to confirm the high quality of the components?
Mass production is a prerequisite of efficient incoming quality control. There is no need for finished components inspections as it happens in pre-shipment inspection. This process involves different steps that depend on the type of product. It also depends on the quality standards.
Material and Component Testing
Imagine you purchase a 24-karat gold necklace. However, you come to know later on that it is only 10-karats. What will be your reaction? It means you wouldn’t be getting what you had paid for.
Incoming quality check is crucial for many products like circuit boards and jewelry. Because fault in these components can be disastrous for your products. Single components failure leads to the entire product failure.
So testing the components or material boosts the performance and safety level of your products. It builds up the trust of your customers on your product. Companies adopt different ways of testing to test the material. Some noteworthy testing methods include:
- Chemical Testing and Analysis
This method helps you to detect contamination traces in the components. Further, engineers analyze the composition of the material. So they can detect the unknown substance. This method also includes metal testing as well.
- Physical Properties Testing
This process is very important to make sure the quality of the components. For example, this process helps you to find out the stability and strength of the parts. In addition to this, you can check the durability of the products. Flaming testing falls in this testing category.
- Mechanical Properties Testing
It is another effective testing techniques for incoming quality inspection procedure. This process helps you to figure out the resistance of components. It also includes fatigue and fracture testing. So if a component contains a fracture, you can find out using this testing technique.
- Regulatory Testing
It is all about the incoming inspection standard. Companies can check that either their products have a legal standard or not. If components fulfill the legal standard criteria, companies cell them to the target market. Otherwise, they raise the quality to the standard level.
All testing methods need an expert team and equipment for testing purposes. But the majority of the factories lack either expert team or testing equipment. So many companies don’t rely on suppliers testing.
Staff quite often choose different pieces for testing purposes in IQC inspection. Besides, they might have a conflict of interest. Therefore, most companies hire expert third-party inspecting team for the testing purpose.
There exists a lot of factories for such testing. So the inspecting team sends the material to these factories for testing. The testing method depends on the quality and type of material. So you can choose an appropriate method for testing according to your material.
Most companies use the ISO 9001 standard to verify the incoming inspection process. A company can audit the QMS of its supplier using the aforementioned standard. So you can confirm the IQC inspection processes with the help of an audit. An Audit has many checkpoints linked to the incoming inspection quality control process. For example:
- There exist some procedures that describe receipt activities of incoming components. Is there confirmation of the amenability of the supplier?
- Does a company have a documented or suitably implemented ways to collect fatigue? Do they have any way to find out defects in the incoming material quality control?
- Do they have any way to analyze and sort out identified defects?
You must assess your manufacturers according to the upper checkpoints. These checkpoints are very helpful to check a strong testing system. So you can verify that either supplier has a robust testing system or not.
Other important tips for authentication
You should add some other important questions to verify the quality of your contentment. Besides, you should request some images of raw materials testing. Because you are relying on their testing. So suppliers should at least provide the images.
However, it is still very difficult to verify the quality of components without an agent. So at least you should ask for some evidence. Because something is better than nothing. Request your supplier to provide some details about the component testing. After the satisfaction, you can further proceed with the deal.
Choosing a trustworthy platform is another important way to get high-quality components. Such companies fulfill the requirement of the customers precisely. Besides, they provide high-quality parts after passing them from the testing pipeline.
MOKO Technology is a big name in printed circuit board manufacturing. The company doesn’t compromise on the raw material inspection quality control.
Two important things maintain the incoming inspection standard. The first one is expert personal. And, the other one is testing equipment. So you can rely on the testing mechanism of this company.
The company has won the heart of its millions of customers. All products of this company are reliable, durable and cost-efficient. They test components before starting the assembling process. Similarly, after assembling the boards, they test circuit boards for quality and workability.
The quality of a product depends on its building blocks. If you use quality material, you will get better results. When you buy components, you can’t say anything about the components. There are only two ways to check the quality of the components.
So the first way is testing. You have learned about different testing methods to check the quality of the content. The second way is to assemble the components. Quality issues become obvious after assembling. You shouldn’t go with the second method. Because it will waste your material and time as well.
So you should go with the first method. The incoming quality control method will help you to check the quality of the components. When you work next time with a supplier, ask for documentation. If they fail to provide any documentation, you should hire another IQC inspiration supplier. After this process, you will see a significant improvement in your product quality.
