Time to address the lack of QC in your business
QC problems are inevitable in any manufacturing or processing environment. It is, unfortunately, one problem that cannot be overlooked. The scary thing is a lot of small to medium-sized businesses don’t understand the importance of an effective quality inspection and control process. After multiple pain point sessions with our customers, we have noticed a trend around quality control processes or the lack thereof in their businesses. It’s time to improve quality control fails and implement a successful strategy.
What is QC and why is it important?
Lets first identify what we are dealing with to understand QC better. Now, quality control is really only one component of “product quality”. Below are four areas that should be looked at holistically to ensure your overall product quality is up to standard:
- Quality Planning is a document of processes that specify quality standards that translate into repeated efforts to discover and reduce quality risks
- Quality Control is a process through which a business seeks to ensure product quality is maintained or improved during production
- Quality assurance is attention to detail during the process of delivery or production of products
- Quality improvement is listening to customers’ satisfaction levels and developing methods around issues to improve production
I would suggest using this as a kind of checklist to improve quality control. If these fundamentals are entwined with your business processes, you are more likely to succeed in eliminating QC issues. To keep it simple, QC is essential if you want to make a revenue. Customers won’t purchase your products if they aren’t up to scratch, which will result in your business closing its doors. I am sure QC is sounding like a crucial part of your business now, right?
Pain points and assumptions around improving quality control
- “An inspection process is time-consuming and I don’t see the value.” Imagine a world where every product produced was in perfect condition – too good to be true. There a number of factors that could affect your production line; raw materials, equipment, labour issues and more. This is why we can’t stress enough the importance of quality control.
- “I am a small business and I don’t have the resources for another system.” Chances are they are using separate operating solutions for various parts of their business. Why? Thinking about adding and implementing another separate system for quality control is not first on the list for business owners. Let’s just carry on doing it manually. Using Excel to record your quality processes is just not good enough anymore. Providers like Microsoft have listened to the needs of small to medium-sized businesses and adapted their solutions to ensure affordability across the board.
- “I have a batch of products that weren’t up to scratch and had to be discarded.” Dealing with defective products can be the result of not having a consistent inspection system to halt a specific production phase until certain criteria are met. You might land up asking yourself, “I’ve lost time, money, and resources here…now what?”
How to get rid of quality control problems?
The first step is to identify the problems your business is facing. Acknowledge them and take action to implement a plan to help. There are many factors that could be affecting your quality control: use of production technology or lack thereof; skills and tools of staff; availability and standard of raw materials; storage or transport facilities.
Adopt a business solution that can help you engrain successful quality methods into your business processes. Here are some reasons to help you find comfort in investing in an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution:
- Reduce your production costs considerably by eliminating poor quality products and wastage along the production line. Keep tabs on inferior raw materials and methods being used to prevent loss of revenue.
- Increase sales by producing good quality products. Keep up with current demand and attract more customers. Get accurate sales forecasts and take the next step to expand your business.
- Improved production techniques result in better manufacturing processes, improved methods, and designs of products. This ensures your products will always be up to your desired standards.
- Adopting more automated processes will allow you to use your resources more effectively, identify issues along the production line, eliminate human error, and lower your costs.
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Foodware 365 are a match made in heaven when it comes to an ERP solution that allows you the added functionality of the food and beverage business requirements you need. Affordable, easy to use solutions that grow with your business. Allonline365 has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry and can help your small business implement and integrate the parts of your business that matter most to you. If you are interested in finding more about how to improve quality control problems give us a call on +27 (21) 205 3650 or email us on info@allonline365.com.
Written by: Romy Künneke, Marketing Coordinator, allonline365
Resources: SpendEdge, Investopedia, Cleverism