In our upcoming blog series, we will delve into the realm of quality control, demystifying its intricate aspects. This is a critical issue, particularly for hardware companies liaising with manufacturers. Often, factories end up making important quality control (QC) decisions without even realizing it!
Quality control might seem like an arcane concept, but in essence, it is a data-driven and process-driven phenomenon. When initiating discussions for a new product with a factory, you are inadvertently negotiating the quality parameters too. This interaction helps the manufacturers gauge your knowledge about manufacturing processes and determine whether you are a firm that can tolerate a slightly higher failure rate, translating to inferior quality.
Product design is not a simple process and certainly, no one initiates it with the intention of producing a faulty unit. Modern products are an amalgamation of complex processes, design principles, and physical components. High-quality products rely heavily on a system of rigorous checks and rechecks during the manufacturing process to ensure that the product functions as intended.
Despite these measures, occasional failure of some parts is unavoidable. The critical aspect is having a system that identifies these failures before the products reach your customers. Two products with the same material cost can have different prices based on the extent of QC effort invested in them. Products with a lower price tag usually have minimal QC checks, thereby reducing the labour cost associated with inspecting parts.
Quality should be a crucial consideration from an environmental perspective too. High-quality products can last for decades, reducing the amount of electronic waste ending up in landfills. Despite this, it's surprising that many products compromise on quality to cut costs.
Let’s establish our quality objectives at Ardencraft Technology:
An on-time delivery goal of >95%
First-pass yield of 90%
The final yield of >98%
Product return goals of <1%
External defect goal of <0.5% on all products
If the external quality falls short of these objectives, a 'Non-Conforming Investigation' is initiated to create a 'Quality Control Improvement Project'. This key step reinforces our commitment to delivering high-quality products.
We ensure factories follow these investigation steps by placing the QC requirements and investigation processes in our "Manufacturing Supply Agreement" contract; signed before the start of any product development project: by signing Manufacturing Supplier Agreements and implementing stringent Outgoing Quality Control (OQC) inspections - which reduces the chances of customers receiving defective products. Keeping defective goods at the source allows our engineers and the manufacturer to conduct a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to address the issue for subsequent production batches.
Our contracts and QC discussions help us negotiate quality standards with factories even before starting any design work. This communicates our firm stance that we only collaborate with factories committed to quality control. We set QC standards that meet or exceed consumer electronics norms.
Factories solely seeking quick profits are discouraged by these standards because they need to commit to these QC norms contractually. If they fail to produce goods meeting our standards, we do not approve the stock for shipment. We act as gatekeepers, physically inspecting all the data and manufactured products to ensure that each product has been thoroughly checked.
The following checks should ideally be performed:
Inspection of the dimensions and function of sub-components upon their arrival at the factory
Examination of each sub-part of the product as it progresses through the assembly line
Functional and cosmetic evaluation of the unit before and after assembly
Functional and cosmetic assessment of the product pre and post-packaging
Final random inspection once the goods are ready
Training of workers for manufacturing the goods and conducting a test run, also known as "Pilot Run"
Calibration of machines and ensuring that the settings remain constant
The goal is to reduce the chances of human or machine error. Each part of the product should be checked and verified independently at least seven times before it reaches the customer. However, with complex products having a higher number of parts, verification becomes challenging. It is tempting to ignore potential issues and assume everything is fine, as it requires no effort and hence costs nothing. But we at Ardencraft Technology believe in investing time and effort to ensure a high-quality product every time. Stay tuned for our upcoming blogs where we'll delve deeper into quality control.
This is part of a blog series where to discuss and explore Quality and what it takes to produce a ‘High-Quality Product’. It is at the heart of what Ardencraft Technology does and why so many customers trust us with the production of their products. If you are a company or a curious individual, please get in touch with us! This is a topic that we enjoy talking about and exploring with our customers.
For Ardencraft Technology Quality Management is a participative, systematic approach to planning and implementing a constant organizational improvement process. Its approach is focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, identifying problems, building commitment, and promoting open decision-making among employees whilst standardizing a core set of processes.
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