Production control is introduced not merely to ensure that the goods will be produced on time, but is also meant to see that the goods produced are of the right quality. This is done through inspection of the products manufactured. Since the purpose of inspection is to compare the products with the standards of quality set earlier, it too, can be regarded as an effective agency of production control. One way of inspection is to examine the quality of finished products at the end of the process of production. But this may involve too much of wastage in the form of rejected products.
To minimize the rejection of defective products, inspection may be conducted at every stage of production. Inspection can occur at three points: before production, during production, and after production. The logic of checking conformance before production is to make sure that inputs are acceptable. The logic of checking conformance during production is to make sure that the conversion of inputs into outputs is proceeding in an acceptable manner. The logic of checking conformance of output is to make a final verification of conformance before passing goods on to customers. Inspection before and after production often involves acceptance sampling procedures; monitoring during the production process is referred to as process control.
Similarly, materials, machines and tools may be inspected against certain established standards to find out their performance and accuracy. Inspections may be made either in respect of samples selected at random or of each particular product (i.e. cent percent inspection). The inspectors may inspect materials, semi-finished and finished products either at the work bench or in special laboratories on testing rooms.
Inspection vs Quality Control
Inspection shall be differentiated from quality control. Inspection involves checking to see if a product meets or does not meet a stated standards. The result of the inspection process is acceptance or rejection of production. quality control, as distinguished from inspection, is directed towards future production rather than the past production. also, inspection methods only enable one ‘to be wise after the event’. Quality control serves to make one ‘get wise before the event’. Truly speaking, quality control is a basic function, while inspection is one technique of executing it. “Quality control sets burglar alarm which prevents law from being broken. Inspection, on the other hand, is simply the police dragnet that catches the burglar after the law has been broken. Quality control enlarges the production pile, inspection only enlarges the scrap pile”.