Key Takeaways
- Manufacturing inspections ensure products meet quality standards throughout production. They prevent defective products from reaching customers, reduce recalls, and enhance customer satisfaction.
- Traditional inspection methods face several challenges, including difficulty anticipating defects, slow issue resolution, and poor collaboration between departments.
- Digital manufacturing inspection tools, like GoAudits, address these challenges through real-time quality control, streamlined collaboration, quick issue resolution, and flexible inspection planning.
Manufacturing inspection is a critical process that spans every stage of production, from assessing raw materials to finished goods. Its effective implementation can significantly enhance product quality, reduce maintenance costs, and ensure compliance.
Read on to discover the benefits, types, and challenges of inspections in manufacturing. Additionally, learn why manufacturers are increasingly adopting digital inspection tools.
What are Manufacturing Inspections?
Manufacturing inspections, aka production inspections, is the systematic process of evaluating and checking if the products meet the quality standards throughout production. It employs visual inspection, measurements, and testing to identify and correct defects.
https://goaudits.com/quality/By identifying and rectifying issues early on, inspections prevent defective products from reaching customers, directly contributing to Quality Control. Furthermore, inspection data helps manufacturers analyze trends and improve their processes, achieving consistent quality over time.
Inspections are integrated throughout production to ensure quality isn’t just checked at the end, but built into the product from the beginning of the manufacturing process.
Types of Manufacturing or Factory Inspections
Typically, three types of inspections are carried out in manufacturing to ensure consistent quality.
1. Pre-production Inspection (Material Inspection)
Pre-production inspection is an initial production inspection done before manufacturing starts. It involves testing the raw materials and components, both in terms of quality and quantity. Hence, it is also known as material inspection.
During a pre-production inspection, an inspector checks the expiry dates of the raw materials, performs strength tests for a sample set, and ensures that materials are free from contaminants that may damage the equipment.
👉 Useful Resource: Pre-Production Checklists for Manufacturing Inspections
These checklists will help you and your suppliers inspect raw materials and equipment before starting production.
→ Audit Supplier Checklist
→ Hot Work Permit Checklist
→ Cold Work Permit Template
→ Contract Permit to Work Checklist
→ Supplier Self-Assessment Checklist
→ Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) Checklist
→ ISO 9001:2015 Supplier Inspection Checklist – Manufacturing
2. In-process Inspection or In-line Inspection
In-process inspection, also known as During Production Inspection (DUPRO) or In-line inspection in manufacturing, is completed in the early stages of production. It aims to identify and address issues and ensure that operations run smoothly.
During the inspection in production, companies use various inspection methods (such as layered process audits) and equipment for testing and verification. For example, check weighers, metal detectors, and x-ray scanners are used to check products on the conveyor.
👉 Useful Resource: Manufacturing In-line Production Checklists
These checklists will help you assess various aspects of production.
→ Manufacturing Process Inspection Checklist
→ Layered Process Audit Checklist
→ Pallet Racking Inspection Checklist
→ First Article Inspection Checklist
→ Production Quality Control Checklist for Manufacturing
→ GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Checklist
3. Final Inspection
As the name suggests, this is the final stage of production inspection, where the finished goods are tested before they reach the customers. The final inspection involves the quality control team testing the product to ensure it meets all the specified manufacturing standards.
It helps businesses avoid placing low-quality goods on the market, preventing expensive recalls. Thorough final inspections also save manufacturers from reputational and financial damage.
👉 Useful Resource: Final Inspection Checklists
These checklists will help you evaluate if the post-production processes are completed correctly.
Benefits of Inspection and Quality Control in Manufacturing
In a nutshell, inspections help companies carry out operations as per the manufacturing SOPs and deliver safe and high-quality products to their customers. However, let’s look at the benefits of manufacturing inspections in detail:
- Enhanced Quality: Checks and inspections during various stages of production help manufacturers find issues and fix them early on, minimizing the risks of delivering subpar products.
- Reduced Recalls: Recalls threaten profitability, especially in sectors like food manufacturing, where companies lose $10M on average due to recalls. Inspections allow manufacturers to identify issues at the right time, preventing expensive recalls in the future.
- Improved Safety: Manufacturing units have complex products with wires and plugs, welding points, etc., that should be correctly assembled. Through inspections, quality engineers can address issues that may cause safety risks.
- Reduced Maintenance Cost: Regular inspections help detect problems when they are easier and cheaper to resolve. Also, they prevent breakdowns, ensuring machines run smoothly and experience minimum downtime.
- Higher Customer Satisfaction: Consistent checks ensure customers receive high-quality products that meet their expectations. Furthermore, they strengthen brand reputation and boost customer satisfaction in the long run.
- Increased Compliance: Inspections help companies assess adherence to various standards such as product safety guidelines, ISO standards, etc. Identifying and fixing non-compliances saves businesses from penalties and reputational damage.
Here’s how digitizing manufacturing inspections fetched added benefits to HTS, a metallurgical heat-treating service:
Digitizing our audits was the biggest no-brainer for our quality system in the past couple of years. No need to enter data into spreadsheets, the clarity we have gained – this has been a game changer!
Katie Day, Quality Assurance and Metallurgy Manager, HTS
Manufacturing and Factory Quality Inspection Checklists
Here are free manufacturing and factory inspection checklists related to regulatory standards and best practices:
- New Miss Log
- 5S Inspection Template
- 6S Inspection Template
- Gemba Walk Checklist Template
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Checklist
Manufacturing Checklists: Fully customize the above checklists or create your own with GoAudits’ 14-day FREE trial!
Why Digitize the Manufacturing Inspection Process?
Traditionally, inspections were a tool to detect and fix the identified issues. However, modern manufacturers require more than that. A new study, “Challenges Faced in Modern Quality Inspection”, highlights the key issues plaguing quality control in modern manufacturing, which include the following:
- Preventing defects by anticipating and addressing potential problems before they occur
- Facilitating immediate redressal of issues and preventing defective products from being placed in the market
- Supporting proactive collaboration and cooperation amongst departments and establishing clear communication channels to discuss quality issues
- Including self-inspection to detect defects at their source, minimize errors, and enhance efficiency
- Planning quality inspection in manufacturing and adapting to changes
Here’s how digital production inspection software helps manufacturers tackle these challenges:
- Proactive Inspection Strategies: Teams can anticipate and mitigate potential issues. The standardized digital reports and analytics dashboards help them identify patterns and trends, enabling them to predict issues before they occur.
- Real-Time Quality Control: Inspectors can conduct checks on the spot using their mobile devices (even when offline) and share reports instantly with the team, allowing management to address issues quickly and ensure defective products are promptly removed from the production line.
- Streamlined Collaboration and Coordination: Manufacturing inspection software allows inspectors to provide real-time feedback, propose enhancements, and suggest preventive measures directly within the mobile app.
- Swift Issue Resolution: Inspectors can assign corrective actions, define priorities, and set due dates for the detected problems, preventing issues from getting further in production.
- Empowering Frontline Workers: With inspection software, workers can perform self-inspection in manufacturing processes. This ensures they feel accountable and are actively involved in quality assurance, and teams leverage the expertise of those closest to the production process.
- Flexible Inspection Planning and Execution: Digital inspection tools offer flexibility in modifying templates to adapt to changing requirements, such as regulatory standards. They allow users to schedule recurring quality inspections in manufacturing and keep track of their completion. Additionally, they facilitate adjusting schedules and optimizing resources to conduct efficient inspections.
Streamline Manufacturing and Production Inspections With GoAudits
With GoAudits, you have an easy-to-use tool to manage the manufacturing inspection process and promote continuous improvement. Besides simplifying checks, with GoAudits you can:
- Schedule inspections at your preferred frequency
- Create instant inspection reports in one click, customized to your brand
- Delegate corrective actions to individuals in your team or outside your organization
- Use Analytics Dashboards to identify improvement opportunities and make data-driven decision
- Scrutinize the production process to ensure products meet the manufacturing inspection and quality standards
With a rating of 4.8 stars on Capterra, GoAudits is trusted by some of the biggest names in the manufacturing industry.
» Customer Success Story: How businesses leverage GoAudits to save time and improve operations.
