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Quality Assurance and Quality Control systems
The document discusses the differences between quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) systems in clothing manufacturing, emphasizing that QA focuses on preventing defects, leading to higher costs but greater customer satisfaction and reliability, while QC reacts to defects post-production and is less costly but results in lower quality products. It argues that adopting a QA system is more beneficial for factories aiming to secure orders from leading brands. The comparison illustrates various aspects such as manufacturing costs, worker skill levels, customer satisfaction, and order acquisition between the two systems.
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Quality Assurance and Quality Control systems
- 1. RMIT TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT MITHILAERANDA LIYANAARACHCHI STUDENT ID - 3570101 RMIT UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA, MELBOURNE
- 2. 2 Quality Assurance andQuality Control systems in clothing manufacturing factories What is Quality Assurance? QualityAssurance canbe simplysaidas“ZERO DEFECTS”. If a companyispracticingqualityassurance system,theyshouldneverproduce defects. Bringingqualityintothe product at designingstage is Quality Assurance.Qualityassuringisbeingproactive.Proactive meansthinkingforwardbefore somethinghappensandtakingnecessarymeasurestopreventthem. Soinotherwords,we can say QualityAssurance is“Prevention”. Pointtobe note inthissystemis, thiswill be quite expensivethana QualityControl system.Thatisbecause of higherfactoryoverheads,expensivemaintenance andhigher salaryscalesof workers because theyonlyrecruitveryskilledworkers. So these kinds offactories will only getorders from leadingbrands like Nike, Zara, H&M,Adidas, Gucci,etc. What is Quality Control? QualityControl isdone whenadefectoccur.So thisis the “Reaction”forthe occurred defect.Underthis theyact after somethinghappens,notpriortothat. For instance,machine operatorswillhave todo re-workwhenthose defectsare produced. SothisisaReactive systemandthere will be defectswithout a doubt. To be note,thissystemisnotverycostlyas a QualityAssurance system,becausethe factories will notuse latesttechnologiesandmachinesforproduction. Andalsotheydon’trecruitonlythe skilled people. So the leadingbrands will neverplace an order in a factory which practicesQuality Control system. They will receive ordersfrom mid-range brands like banana republic, M&S,La-Senza,etc. P.T.O
- 3. 3 What is better,Pro-actionorReaction? Thisin otherwords,whatisbetter,QualityAssurance orQualityControl?The answerisprettysimple, wholikesdefective items? Butsince we are talkingaboutapparel sector,there isthis“cost factor” whichfactorypeople are muchconcernedabout.Or else beingproactiveisalwaysbetterthanbeing reactive.Sowe can preventthe thingsthatwe do notexpectandstay withoutreactingunnecessarily. Whenconsideringthe status-quoof Sri LankanApparel industry,the numberof produceddefectsis ata higherlevel. Sothatmeansit incursadditional costforre-work.Therefore practicingQualityAssurance systemisthe bestway toproduce garments. E.g. Assume two differentfactoriesare there,one as “A” and other one as “B”. Factory “A” practicesthe traditional QualityControl system and the factory “B” practices Quality Assurance system.They both produce trousers... After the manufacturing process,end products of both the factorieslook perfectlysimilar. But afterwearing it for like 3months, the trouser whichwas made out from factory “A” which is practicing QC has got pillingonit around the seating area. And the one came out from factory “B” which is practicing QA, still looksperfectlynew. The reason behindthe above incident is,Factory “A” (QCfactory) is not looking forward. Furthermore they neveruse first qualityraw material and methodsfor the production. So there will be more customer complaintsand customer dissatisfaction. And there is also a possibilityoflosingorders.The factory “B” (QA factory) usesquality raw material and methodsfor the production, so there are no defectsand no complaints regardingits quality.Therefore they will receive more and more orders. Comparison between Quality Assuranceand Quality Control system (with regard to a clothing manufacturing plant) will be on the following page… P.T.O
- 4. 4 Comparison between QualityAssurance and Quality Control System Quality Assurance system (QA) Quality Control system (QC) 1. Zerodefects 2. Durable productand lesscomplains 3. Manufacturingcost will be expensive whencomparedtoQC (Due to expensive factoryoverheads,salaryscalesand maintenance ) 4. Onlyskilledoperatorsare workingunder QA system 5. Bestmachines/technology are usedfor manufacturinginQA system 6. Uses the bestavailable methodforeach and everyoperation 7. More customersatisfaction 8. More possibilityof gettingmore new orders 9. Higherinitial cost 10. QA systemiscostlywhencomparedtoQC system(Salaryscales,maintenance cost will be higher) 1. Defectscan be made 2. Notdurable andmore complains 3. Manufacturingcost isnot so expensiveas QA 4. Notveryskilledworkersare workingunder QC system 5. Notusingthe bestmachines/ technology for manufacturinginQCsystem 6. Notusingthe bestmethod,butthe cheapest method 7. Lesscustomersatisfaction 8. Lesspossibilityof gettingmore orders 9. Initial costisnot higherasQA system 10. Notverycostlyas QA system.Maintenance cost and salaryscaleswill be verylowwhen comparedto QA system END