Originally posted by Al Dyer
b)
My main concern would be why a "Quality Control" department is doing in-process inspections when the people that make the item should be monitoring their own work and passing it on to the next process. Then as a final inspection "quality" can do the deed.
Al...
Al,
I don’t know about Andrews’situation, but sometimes it does make sense to have in-process testing done by “QC” or someone “outside” the normal process. I agree that ideally the test would be performed on-line by the people performing the rest of the process. If the test is just using micrometers to measure a simple dimension or any similar relatively easy test performed by cheap tools, on-line testing by the people performing the rest of the process should be done almost always.
However, some tests require highly-skilled people to perform them and/or require the use of expensive and/or sensitive equipment that is not practical to duplicate at every process location. In such cases I believe it is best to have a “QC” or test group act as an internal service organization to the people performing the rest of the process. I’ve fought this battle before with idealists who called me “closed-minded” and insisted that every “workcell” perform their own tests in their own area. Well, at least they insisted until they finally got the written estimate for duplicating the test equipment, facility modifications, and personnel it would take to do that, then suddenly I wasn’t so close-minded and stupid after all. One competitor tried this on a limited basis and from reports I heard it was a disaster of expense and screw-ups, a case of “tearing defeat from the jaws of victory”.
