Department of Mechanical Engineering

Quality Control and Assurance

Introduction
 What Is Quality?

• Oxford American Dictionary

• a degree or level of excellence

• American Society for Quality

• totality of features and characteristics that
satisfy needs without deficiencies

• Consumer’s and producer’s perspective

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What Is Quality: Customer’s Perspective

• Fitness for use

• how well product or service does what it is
supposed to

• Quality of design
• designing the required quality characteristics
into a product or service

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 Dimensions of Quality: Manufactured
Products
• Performance
• basic operating characteristics of a product; how well
a car handles its gas mileage

• Reliability
• probability that a product will operate properly within
an expected time frame; that is, a TV will work without
repair for about seven years

• Durability
• how long product lasts before replacement; L. L. Bean
boots (a type of shoes) may last a lifetime

• Serviceability
• ease of getting repairs, speed of repairs, courtesy and
competence of repair person 2-4
 Dimensions of Quality: Manufactured
Products
• Aesthetics
• how a product looks, feels, sounds, smells, or tastes

• Features
• “extra” items added to basic features, such as a stereo
CD or a leather interior in a car

• Conformance to standard
• degree to which a product meets pre–established
standards

• Perceived quality
• customer's perception of the overall quality of a
product or service with respect to its intended purpose,
relative to alternatives.
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 What Is Quality: Producer’s Perspective

• Quality of conformance
• making sure product or service is produced
according to design
• if new tires do not conform to specifications, they
will wobble (an unsteady movement from side to
side)
• if a hotel room is not clean when a guest checks
in, hotel is not functioning according to
specifications of its design

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 What Is Quality: A Final Perspective

• Customer’s and producer’s perspectives

depend on each other

• Producer’s perspective:
• production process (conformance to specification) and
COST

• Customer’s perspective:
• quality of design (quality characteristics) and PRICE

• Customer’s view must dominate 2-7

Meaning of Quality

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 What Is Quality: Modern definition

Example-

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 Meaning of Quality Improvement

• Quality Improvement
Quality improvement is the reduction of
variability in processes and products.

Alternatively, quality improvement is also

seen as “waste reduction”.

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 Quality Engineering

Quality engineering is the set of operational,

managerial, and engineering activities that a
company uses to ensure that the quality
characteristics of a product are at the nominal
or required levels.

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 Quality Characteristics

Quality Characteristics

▪ Physical (Variable) - length, weight, voltage,

viscosity

▪ Sensory (Attribute) - taste, appearance, color

▪ Time Orientation - reliability, durability,

serviceability

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 Quality Engineering Terminology

Two types of data

• Attributes Data - discrete data, often in the

form of counts.

• Variables Data - continuous measurements

such as length, weight.

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 Quality Engineering Terminology

• Specifications
Quality characteristics being measured are
often compared to standards or specifications.

• Nominal or target value

• Upper Specification Limit (USL)

• Lower Specification Limit (LSL)

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 Quality Engineering Terminology

• When a component or product does not meet

specifications, they are considered to be
nonconforming or defective.

• A nonconforming or defective product usually

has one or more defects.

• Defects are nonconformities that may seriously

affect the safe or effective use of the product.

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 A Brief History of Quality Engineering and
Improvement

• Walter Shewhart (1924) introduced statistical

control chart concepts.

• The American Society for Quality Control

formed in 1946 (now known as the American
Society for Quality (ASQ)).

• 1950s and 1960s saw an increase in

reliability engineering, experimental design,
and statistical quality control.
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 A Brief History of Quality Engineering and
Improvement

• Competition from foreign industries (Japan)

increases during the 1970s and 1980s.

• Statistical methods for quality improvement use

increases in the United States during the 1980s.

• Total Quality Management (TQM) emerges

during 1970s and into the 1980s as an important
management tool to implement statistical
methods.

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 A Brief History of Quality Engineering and
Improvement

Total Quality Management (TQM)

• TQM is a managerial framework to accomplish

quality improvement. Also known as Company-
Wide Quality Control (CWQC).

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 A Brief History of Quality Engineering and
Improvement

• ISO 9000 certification activities increase in

U.S. industry in the 1990s.

• Motorola’s Six-Sigma (Bill Smith) initiative

begins in the 1990s.

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Statistical Methods for Quality Engineering
and Improvement

Three major areas:

• Statistical process control (SPC)

• Design of experiments (DOE)

• Acceptance sampling

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Statistical Methods for Quality Control and
Improvement

Statistical Process Control (SPC)

• Control charts are used for process monitoring
and variability reduction.

• SPC is an on-line quality control tool.

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 Statistical Methods for Quality Control and
Improvement

Design of Experiments
• Experimental design is an approach to
systematically varying the controllable input
factors in the process and determine the effect
these factors have on the output responses.

• Experimental designs are off-line quality tools.

• Crucial for variability reduction.

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Statistical Methods for Quality Control and
Improvement

Acceptance Sampling
• Acceptance sampling is the inspection and
classification of a sample of the product selected
at random from a larger batch or lot and the
ultimate decision about disposition of the lot.

• Two types:
1. Outgoing inspection - follows production
2. Incoming inspection - before use in
production
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 Quality Costs

Quality Costs are those categories of costs

that are associated with producing,
identifying, avoiding, or repairing products
that do not meet requirements. These costs
are:
• Prevention Costs
• Appraisal Costs
• Internal Failure Costs
• External Failure Costs

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Cost of Quality

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