How Are Your Inspections Inspected?

Every company should have a procedure, a process in place for checking and inspecting parts that comes in from suppliers. Some tests are going to simple, non-critical applications, that are just visual, but some parts are going to need much more in depth inspection testing such things as critical measurements, plating and resistance to corrosion.

But even with all of these processes put in place and having samples of all parts looked at and inspected, it is still a great idea to have the staff that are using the parts to be able to some basic last second identification, even if it's just visual. The more pairs of eyes that you have on something, looking and inspecting, the greater chance you have of catching anything that might be wrong with the parts.

But even if you have all of these things in place, and 99% of everything goes through correctly and parts that are identified as bad never make it through to the assembly area, there are still a small percentage of parts that will get through. These might be parts that are mixed in with good parts, it's not uncommon to have a bad part mixed in with the good parts, and even if the end user does not see it and uses it, there should be some process in place to catch it before it leaves the plant.

Because once that finished product leaves the plant and gets into the hands of the end user, the real problems are just beginning. If the parts get through final inspection and are shipped and make it out into the field, it is very difficult to fix the problem. Sure you can replace the parts and get the parts back, but what if the parts failed and damaged something or broke something or even hurt somebody? It is easy to fix the parts, but it is harder to mend the relationship between you and your customer, and it is even harder to regain the trust between the two parties.

That is why having a process in place to stop anything that doesn't meet standards or seems incorrect should be available at all steps of the manufacturing process. It should not only be up to the final inspectors, but if a worker on the line notices something out of line, they should be able to stop the process immediately and have the situation looked in to.