Quality Control and Quality assurance in Metal Injection Molding
Quality is the characteristic of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy the stated or implied needs. The word Quality has a variety of meanings and definition. There are 2 types of Quality in any manufacturing sector : its Quality control and Quality assurance.
Quality control (QC) refers to the process and procedures put in place to maintain consistency and conformity of products throughout the product cycle. A significant aspect of Quality control is the establishment of well-defined controls and to detect the defective parts at inspection. Quality control has a rich history that evolved from medieval guilds to the factory system and beyond. Examples of Quality control are testing & inspection. It’s a very old method of maintaining quality in any organization.
Quality assurance (QA) refers to the processes that the manufacturers utilize as part of a quality management system to maintain consistent, expected quality levels on the items they produce. A significant aspect of Quality assurance is the establishment of well-defined controls to avoid producing the defect/defective parts in the process. QA is always “right first time”.
We, at INDO-MIM, follow an approach of Quality assurance. SQE (system quality engineering) & PQE (process quality engineering) structure is one amongst them in all the departments. We started this journey a few years back and have seen it yielding very good results in terms of system and process, step by step. Initially, we brainstormed and listed all the points of improvements for a department to improve and go to the next level in terms of system and process. Here SQE is something different from ISO/IATF/medical standard clauses. For example, in the injection molding process maintaining the check ring diameter is an important factor which affects the parts’ quality. Depending upon the wear pattern and other factors, check ring diameter needs to be fixed. Now the challenge is to fix the frequency to change this check ring in the machine as per the specified check. We need to thoroughly study the wear pattern statistically and fix a plan as per the fixed frequency and change the check ring accordingly before it fails, which is a QA approach. This is a new system in the injection molding department. Similarly, there are many other system-related SQE in injection molding department. Likewise check differs from department to department as per its criticality. On the other hand, PQE is mainly the process improvements to reduce scrap, internal rejection and COPQ (cost of poor quality).
Each SQE engineer and PQE engineer are given specific points as MOP (measure of performance) and are being monitored month on month along with the target, which is set against previous year achievement. Ratings are given for each identified MOP and finally we arrive at the departmental score. We see an incremental improvement in these scores for all the departments. This structure is implemented at the service departments like NPD (new product development) & Plant engineering as well.
This structure has given us more insight of the QA department, which in turn allows us to add news MOPs every year. We have displayed dashboard/audit kiosk in each department with all the MOPs of the specific department for an easy access. We would like our customers to take a free audit through these dashboards. We, at INDO-MIM, always learn from our customers.
