“Show value, create an experience and always strive to exceed customer expectations” – Shep Hyken
There are many attributes that customers consider to judge a product or service. However, quality creates the most effective brand recall in their minds. People tend to overlook all other factors if they are convinced they are getting their money’s worth in terms of quality. Companies around the world that have launched successful products and services have always focused extensively on delivering the finest quality. Quality control is a department that receives utmost attention from company executives looking to build a reputation for themselves among customers.
Quality control, especially in the manufacturing industry, has come a long way with the introduction of sophisticated equipment that use state of the art technologies to automatically detect and discard faulty products be it something as simple as a single potato chip or something as complicated as a commercial airliner.
Now that we’ve laid out its significance, let us analyze what benefits it brings and some of the innovations that have taken place in the industry.
BENEFITS
It enhances customer satisfaction
The first and foremost benefit of maintaining strict quality is customer satisfaction. People might disagree but all successful companies in the world today offer products that are durable and provide great value for money. If a Rolls Royce Phantom costs almost $400,000 dollars, the company takes 3 months to build each model; as a result, they are one of the leading automotive manufacturers on the planet with an ever-increasing brand loyal customer base.
SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN COSTS AND OPTIMAL UTILIZATION OR RESOURCES
Investing in quality control measures shows it benefits in other departments by reducing production, operations, legal and marketing costs over time. After sales cost go down due to less faults arising with the product after delivery. Detecting flaws on the production conveyor results in less wastage and brings down the cost of production. Good quality becomes a marketing tool in itself and there comes a time when you can reduce certain marketing related expenditures.
Money is the most important resource is business. Quality control helps save resources such as costs and time. These saved resources can be utilized effectively in other processes and departments like R&D for new products.
INNOVATIONS
The most impressive innovation that the world has seen is automation. The manufacturing industry, in particular, has benefitted extensively from computer based systems and programs that have streamlined processes by reducing times, costs, effort and errors. Laser guided machines have become so precise that they can detect faulty potato chips on rapidly moving conveyor belts and blow it off with accuracy. With wide-scale acceptance, these systems don’t even cost too much and they return their costs over the period of their use.
Quality control has been touted as the most important department for any business because it helps build customer loyalty. With added benefits like cost reduction and effective allocation of resources, it is a department hard to ignore and with the added arsenal of automated inspection systems, what more could a business ask for?
