What are quality checklists and how to use them?

A quality checklist is a checklist that gives information with regard to quality assurance activities. Information found on a quality assurance checklist are guides for identifying and planning quality assurance activities. Quality control inspection checklists serve two main purposes – 1. they outline quality standards and product requirements the company is expected to meet and 2. they provide objective criteria for inspecting the product to ensure it meets customer’s expectations.

Two women doing a quality inspection by following a quality checklist

What are quality checklists?

Manufacturers often want to know what the best way is to clarify their product requirements, both to their suppliers and a quality assurance department that will check a product. An effective quality control (QC) checklist most often serves this purpose. It is basically a written guide for a products’ contents, packaging, appearance, possible defects, functions, and special requirements.

Typically, each manufacturer has specific requirements for their product. That’s why it’s important for quality assurance to tailor a Quality Control Checklist to their employer’s unique needs. A quality control checklist is basically a written guide for your products’ contents, packaging, color, barcodes, appearance, possible defects, functions, and special requirements. It’s also sometimes called an “inspection criteria sheet” or inspection checklist.

Checklists for similar products often share common inspection criteria. But typically, each item often has some specific requirements for their product. That’s why it’s important for QAs to tailor a quality control checklist to item’s unique needs. Key elements to take a look at:

  1. Product requirements
  2. Packaging requirements
  3. On-site product tests and checks
  4. Defect classification
  5. Collaboration between the manufacturer, suppliers, line assemblers and Quality Assurance Inspector in drafting inspection checklists

Why quality checklists are a must for any manufacturing company?

Quality assurance knows that they need clear product requirements or else they risk sending out items that doesn’t meet their customer’s expectations. 85% of quality discovered issues are caused by worker errors. This indicates that companies are failing at supporting employee performance and preventing quality costs. Adding quality checks within procedures is a simple strategy to support employee performance while keeping quality at the forefront of operations.

By integrating these checks into your work instructions using digital forms, employees can check their work as they follow a procedure. Not only does this ensure that quality checks are performed regularly, but they become a part of the process, rather than an additional task after the procedure is completed.

Conclusion

Managing quality is a bit like coaching a professional sports team. A big part of the job is about repeating the same thing over and over, to get the basics right. Basically, quality is the result of appropriate project management. Quality checklists help guarantee that the final products meet the expected quality requirements for the project. Confidence in business is vital and can be ensured by proper control measures such as quality checklists. the primary role of the quality checklist is to help its user to carry out his work quickly in a non-penalizing time. Time-saving is important here, which is what digital quality checklist offer: more efficiency and less time spent transcribing data.