We asked our team of experienced quality control experts to recall some of the major quality control disasters that they encountered during the course of their career. These disasters resulted in losses worth thousands of dollars for the businesses; they did, however, give us invaluable lessons in the field of quality control.
What Lessons Did We Learn Regarding Quality Control Management From These Disasters?
Many of our customers, sadly, learned the hard way regarding what mistakes to avoid when you’re involved in quality control. Here are some of those mistakes that you should avoid entirely in order to avoid any potential losses and quality concerns.
1. Ignoring Golden Samples: The Disastrous case of Holiday Decorations
As a lifelong rule for your business, you should make sure that you always have an approved sample from your supplier prior to manufacturing the entire order. This sample is known commonly as a golden sample that is passed by you whereby you confirm that every aspect of the products in the sample is according to your requirements and specifications and that the rest of the production order should be an exact replica of the approved sample. This sample would also be used to verify all the future production units to make sure that they are in-line with the specifications asked by you.
Coming back to this disaster: during a holiday season, one of our customers ordered wall hangings that had printing on them, one saying ‘happy mother’s day’ and the other ‘Merry Christmas’. When the order was received, the customer was utterly disappointed because both the decoration pieces had spelling errors on them. The first set read ‘happy mother day’ with the s missing in mother’s and the other one that said ‘marry Christmas.’
Though it may be hilarious, the damages it caused the customer were far from something to smile about. All of this hassle could have been easily avoided had the customer first ordered a golden sample, and approved it; because since no approved sample existed, the inspectors were unable to find anything wrong with the products.
2. Missing out Important Details in your Product Requirements: A Jewelry Customer’s Nightmare
As is mentioned time and time again, it is crucial for you to clearly specify each and every one of your product requirements to the supplier. This may sound troublesome for some people, but this is the only way that you can ensure that you and your supplier are on the same page about what exactly needs to be produced. No matter how small you think a detail is, never assume that the supplier will be able to figure it out on his own. Always mention each and every aspect.
Our next customer forgot to do just this. He ordered jewelry from a new factory that was popular for producing a wide variety of different styles. The customer received samples from the supplier, approved them, and these approved samples were used to compare against the entire batch. The inspector found no differences and thereby passed the shipment during the inspection.
Everything Seemed Fine
On the surface, everything seemed fine. However, it wasn’t long before complaints started to pour in regarding the stones in the jewelry falling out. This was because, during the approval stage of the golden sample, the customer had not paid any attention to the type of glue that would be used to bind the stones to the jewelry. It was thereby left on to the supplier’s discretion, who decided to use cheap quality glue to save costs.
Once this issue was brought to the company’s notice. It was found that there existed no solution to fix the low-quality products. Because the business could not afford to provide substandard goods. They had to remove all of the existing products from the retailers. This cost the business over $10000 in losses. All because it did not specify the type of glue that it wanted to use in its jewelry. Hence, you must make sure that you do not leave out any details in your requirements.
3. Ignoring Pre-Shipment Inspection: The Fire Pit Failure
Pre-shipment inspection is one of the most fundamental measures that you can take in order to ensure product quality assurance. If you wait until the products are delivered to you to inspect them. You will be exposed to a plethora of problems such as bearing the cost of rework for defected orders. Or delayed delivery to your customers in case of encountering defected products.
This unfortunate customer made the mistake of forgoing a pre-shipment inspection. He had ordered fire pits that had to pack in custom made cartons. These cartons were to be stapled from four sides. To make sure that the box stayed intact and did not fall apart. However, the supplier did not staple the box and the shipment was sent to the U.S. Once the shipment arrived. It was found that the cartons were falling apart because the boxes were not stapled.
The customer therefore had to hire additional workers. And pay them extra, to perform the task that the supplier had left incomplete. Had the customer performed a pre-shipment inspection. This problem could have been resolved when the shipment was still with the supplier without incurring additional costs.
Did you learn anything from these mistakes? Hope you did!
Although these mistakes were very unfortunate. They did reap valuable lessons for all businessmen around the world. Regarding the importance of several measures in quality control such as pre-shipment inspection, clear product specifications, and golden samples.
By making sure that you do not compromise on these, and all other fundamental aspects of quality control, you can ensure that you do not face any quality control disasters and are able to have uninterrupted business experience.