Inspection and Test Status

This is the text of an article published by Peter Griffin

INSPECTION & TEST STATUS

How do we know if it is correct ?

Once products have been inspected, there should be a method for easily identifying them as acceptable or unacceptable. This can be achieved in many ways, including:-

	marking
	stamping
	labelling
	segregating
	associated documents
	test reports
	physical location

The method(s) used must be decided by the company, and may vary for different types of product, however the objective remains to easily identify the status of any product in the company. If this is not possible, the only recourse is to inspect it again, to confirm its status;.. this is a wasted expense.

Example:

A major airport installed new lighting in one of its terminals. There were 800 similar lights. Shortly after commissioning, some began to fail, at a rate of 25 per week. They were difficult to replace, needing ladders and trestles. After four weeks, the fault was traced to a small component. After three further weeks, it was established that all of the lights contained components from the same "suspect" batch. It was therefore decided to change all of the components in an organized manner. The only problem was that nobody has remembered to identify or record which of the lights had already been repaired !

Editor's Notes

Peter Griffin is managing consultant of P Griffin & Associates (PGA); one of the leading quality management consultancies operating in Europe and the USA.

P Griffin & Associates have assisted 260 companies (ranging from 3 employees to multi-national corporations) to achieve improvements in quality and ISO9000 Registration.

While the majority of companies fail to achieve ISO9000 certification at the first attempt, 98% of PGA's quality assurance clients have achieved first-time success.

Please pass your comments/ suggestions/ requests to

help@quality.co.uk

To gain more information contact Peter Griffin & Associates on

E-mail pgrifster@gmail.com

 

 

Quality Network Home

P Griffin & Associates Index

Last Updated November 19, 1995
Thank you for visiting