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Industry 4.0 Glossary

Line Quality Control

Line quality control systems help monitor and regulate product specifications that impact quality across the production line.

There are broadly two types of line quality control systems namely, on-line quality control and end-of-line quality control depending on when the inspection happens. They help manufacturers enhance precision, reduce wastage, and subsequently improve ROI.

Quality Control In Manufacturing

Quality control is a key aspect of any manufacturing process. It ensures a product’s conformance to regulatory standards and prescribed benchmarks. Quality control closely examines a product against its recommended specifications and highlights any anomalies or errors. Besides just examining the products, quality control can also be applied to assess the process of production itself. This can help identify inefficiencies or lack of precision across the manufacturing.

There are several approaches to quality control. Generally, the type of quality control tool used depends on the product that is being tested. Commonly used quality tools are scatter charts, fishbone diagrams, and pareto charts.

Inline Vs. Offline Line Quality Control

Manufacturers can instate quality control along the production line in one of two ways – in-line and offline.

The in-line process integrates the inspection process into the production line, which means a product is inspected along its journey through the production line. The off-line process requires the removal of the product from the process for inspection, thereby briefly halting the product’s journey.

In-line Quality Control Process

The in-line quality control process incorporates inspection points across the production line. These points inspect the product for quality in terms of various standards or specifications. The gauges used in this process are specific to the task assigned. Certain inspection points are also likely to have multi-purpose gauges. The in-line quality control is swifter than the offline systems. This is primarily because the inspection takes place along the process without any additional time required for removal or replacement. The data gathered from these inspections can be used to align the production process in real-time to maintain limits of tolerance which can reduce wastage and downtime.

Offline Quality Control Process

In the offline quality control process, the product is removed from the production line for inspection. Inspection is carried out either automatically or by using CMM (coordinate measuring machine). The observed values are compared against the engineering prescribed specifications to determine conformance based on the tolerance threshold. Since taking a product off a production line for inspection would involve a considerable amount of time, not every product is inspected. A predetermined sample of products gets inspected to represent the general quality of the batch. In case a defect or anomaly is identified, production is halted. A thorough analysis is carried out to locate the source of the defect and rectify the issue before proceeding.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Experience With Line Quality Control

Line quality control offers a wide range of quality inspection tools & techniques to improve accuracy and achieve quality assurance. Quality Assurance is a deciding factor in the success of any product or service. From encouraging quality consciousness to satisfying customer’s quality specifications play a pivotal role. From a manufacturer’s standpoint, it enables effective utilization of resources, improves efficiency and continually improves production methods.