Quality inspections are defined processes that will measure or examine a product or process unit and compare it with previously established characteristics and specifications (parameters).

According to IN METRO (National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology) inspections may include “ the testing of products, materials, installations, plants, processes, work procedures or services, during all the life stages of these items and aim at determining the compliance with the criteria established by regulations, standards or specifications, and the subsequent reporting of results ”.

At Pari Passu, we have customers from different segments - food, beverages, textiles, consultancies, supermarkets, animal nutrition - who use our solutions to monitor their processes and do Quality Management.

Accompanying these customers in the challenges of structuring their processes and after observing their experiences, we want to share 5 important lessons about process quality inspections that generate significant results.

Check out 5 important learnings about Process Quality Inspections:

1. Understand the market, the legislation and their certifications

The first step to properly do quality inspections of processes is to know the market and its rules. For example, know the legislation of the sector in which the product and process are inserted, such as the rules for recall or authorized inputs for use.

Also seek to meet criteria established by the main quality certifications for the sector. The fulfillment of the requirements foreseen in certifications endorses your company's commitment to the quality and safety of the final products.

In addition, establish in advance and meet the quality conditions expected by each of your customers, reducing the chances of returning your products.

Mastering these specifications, legal and commercial, incorporate the types of inspections - physical, sensory, temporal assessment, for example - required by each one.

2. Know which steps to inspect

Setting the steps that are critical, that is, those that can modify the proposed quality standards, during the process and implement specific inspection procedures for each one of them will help to prevent the delivery of a non-conforming final product at the end of production.

Following the daily routine of our customers, we realize that inspections in the receipt of raw materials, in the storage and in the shipment / delivery of finished products / processes, are the most decisive inspections to carry out a process in accordance with the previously established quality standards.

3. Set parameters

It is necessary to define which are the parameters in which your criteria will be evaluated in the inspection. For example:

• Critical points: are those that can configure dangerous conditions for those who purchase the product or service.
• Serious points: are those that can generate failures or reduce the usefulness of the product to its intended use.
• Light / tolerable points: those that do not reduce the usefulness of the product or do not influence its effective use.

From the parameter definitions, determine a tolerable percentage of occurrence for each one, using Technical Sheets as a reference for inspections. Thus, establish procedures that must be performed when the percentages exceed the tolerance limits.