What is Incoming Quality Control?
When thinking of incoming quality control, a simple definition could be: Incoming quality control refers to the procedure that inspects the quality of materials and components that were purchased. This control check is completed before the beginning of production.
Why does Incoming Quality Control matter?
Before production can begin, the supplier’s incoming goods must be inspected to make sure they match the specifications of your original instructions. If the same supplier has been used for a long period of time, as they get comfortable, gradual degradation of the inputs could take place or the quality of the material and components of the input may change. A few faulty inputs could ruin production and could cause the creation of an unmarketable final result. These issues can cause delays, as the parts made are not correct and now you must take the time to reorder the components and begin the entire process again.
Incoming Quality Control Responsibility and the Incoming Inspection Checklist
- Identify the type of quality control needed in your specific workplace
- Identify the type of sampling plan you will use (Ex. Random sampling or statistical sampling etc.)
- Notify internal teams and suppliers to clarify measurements of inputs as well as inspection results of those measurements (can use a picture or diagram), this information can be used to negotiate with the supplier for a return or exchange if a problem is detected
- Create a folder to house the history of all incoming goods and incoming quality control data to track trusted suppliers/ those with a high rejection rate and make informed decisions moving forward
- Begin collecting data using the incoming inspection checklist to monitor the characteristics that result in the highest rejection rate among input materials
- Define rejection thresholds by identifying your AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) or NQT (Quality Level Tolerated)
Simplifying Quality Inspection.
Measure, monitor, and manage quality data throughout the production cycle or repair and overhaul process. We offer production workforce management and document management solutions.
How to optimize quality control for your business?
Incoming quality control checks can be costly and time-consuming depending on the frequency of the inspection, companies should only complete these inspections at an optimal time for them to reduce quality control time. Here are some measures to maintain incoming goods quality and optimize your incoming inspection standards:
- Track supplier history with incoming inspection checklists: change the inspection intensity based on the past performance of each specific supplier
- Optimize the sampling process: by either stopping the inspection process if a certain lot is mostly up to standard or mostly insufficient
- Create an incoming inspection process flow chart specific to each operation, giving each process its own incoming inspection procedure. A sample incoming inspection process flow chart is below…
What to avoid during incoming quality control?
- Accidentally accepting a faulty lot of inputs: alters the final product
- Rejecting good quality materials: causes a delay in manufacturing
Completing Incoming quality control
- Complete inspections either systematically or randomly depending on the type of material provided
- When completing incoming quality control, do not use the time between units inspected as a measure, production timing has no effect on quality it is better to have no notion of the time when selecting items randomly