Chaozhou QC vs QA

                                           Originally written by Joy on 12/12/2012

In this diary, I would like to talk about Chaozhou QC and QA.

In the eyes of some clients, QA is the same as QC, which is a simple job.

The imagined QC/QA process:

When goods are ready, go to the factory and open cartons randomly.

1.If most goods are passable, put on the QC stamp and go home.

2.If the rejection rate is higher than Quality Standard, ask the factory to unpack and rework.

3.Take some photos of the rejected defects and write a report to the client.

The real QA process:

1.As soon as orders are placed, a QA should contact the sales person and production manager to check the estimate goods ready date and packing date.

Tips: A Client usually deals with sales person only and always tell them “you should give me good price and good quality”. Sadly but true, it is meaningless because sales always stay in air-conditioned office and handle computers. Only the production manager and the labors who manufacture the products by hands can make a difference on quality.

2.When partial goods are ready, QA should visit workshop and check randomly to get the general condition of this consignment, if there is any major defect, QA should communicate with the production manager immediately and correct the mistake while it''''''''''''''''s tiny.

For example during moist weather, the ceramic soil will contain too much water. If the product mold is not dry enough before firing in kiln, the final product surface will inevitably have more pinholes, bubbles, orange peel glaze etc.In such situation, the drying time for ceramic mold should be longer.

3.When all goods are produced and passed the factory’s own QC department, QA should be on the spot of the whole packing procedure. During packing, QA will keep an eagle eye on the goods packed. Normally, there will be some escaped rejected goods more or less.

4.An elite QA should also be familiar with the production line labors'''''''''''''''' character. Some labors or packers are experienced and cautious, while others are greenhand and careless. For the latter, special attention should be paid to them. Both encouragement and punishment should be taken to make sure these labors do the things right.

5.If major quality issue really happens, QA should make sure the factory is responsible for the problem even if they have to sacrifice the immediate interest and profit. No one wants to lose money, so the QA should remind the factory manager of the long-term business relationship and reputation etc.

Sum Up
In reality, QA is much more complicated and challenging than the imagined version. QA ought to be alert for the whole production process.

Besides, a qualified QA not only need to know about product quality standard, but also should be smart in dealing with people especially labors.

A QA helps the factory to do things right for the first time, instead of always waste time on rework and correcting mistakes.

My husband Ben(QC manager in our office) always tell me, working with factory is like renting a car, you need to be a brilliant driver in order to make the best use of it.

The End