How to Create a Consistent Quality Inspection Process Today

Many, if not most businesses struggle with consistency issues in some form at some time or another. So, as a contractor or home builder, how do you create a consistent quality control inspection process?

A reliable and repeatable inspection and quality control process is what will produce consistent results across your company's construction processes. That means, no matter who does the inspection, they'll get the same outcome every time.

However, how do you know that your quality control inspections are working? Consistency is achieved when two inspectors look at the same details and interpret their final inspection in the same way.

What is a Quality Inspection Process?

A quality inspection process is the system you use to check the quality of your handcrafted or manufactured goods. This system can also be used to spot-check the work of your employees. It’s an essential function for any business involved in creating a product or a service. Quality inspection is a critical component to any business. It ensures that products meet the standards of quality, durability, and reliability. It’s also a critical component for building your brand as having a strong product means having strong brand equity.

What is the difference between quality control and quality inspections?

Quality control and inspection are two pillars of a business’s quality assurance process. Quality control is the process of ensuring that the correct procedures are being followed. It may involve checking the number of times a machine is used during a day to ensure it’s not overheating or being used to the point of breaking down. It can also involve standardising your processes and equipment. For example, using the same paintbrush for every wall or using a specific formula for your concrete mix.

Inspecting your goods is the process of checking that they meet the agreed standards and are fit for their purpose. It’s not enough to know that an item was made and made to a certain standard. You also need to check that it’s the same standard as the previous item(s). If the item does not meet the agreed standards, it needs to be rejected

How to Improve the Quality Control Inspection Process

Employ these tactics to improve consistency and the quality standards within your projects and production process.

• Use standardized master checklist templates. When everyone uses the same checklists with the inspection criteria, they'll all check the same details, and nothing is left to interpretation or guesswork for the quality control inspectors.
• Your master copy is cloud-based and accessible by anyone in your organization that performs quality inspections. You'll have no obsolete checklists to worry about and version controls are not required.
• Attach instruction and reference documents to your checklist and example images to individual checkpoints. Come inspection time, inspectors will know what the company standard is for anything in question. You've given your inspectors an “open book test” with the correct answers written in the margins. Your quality inspector needs only compare his or her observation with the correct answer.
• This will help save time and money as there is a clear benchmark for the quality management systems.
• Require pictures for checkpoints that tend to have variations in interpretation. Then make your own assessment based on the picture. This provides a feedback loop system for the inspectors. An added benefit of this requirement is that inspectors pay attention to the finer details when they take a picture.
• Perform random re-inspections and compare results. Differences in interpretation are opportunities to learn.
• First you teach your inspector how to inspect with consistency, this will give you a framework to compare results and starts the work towards achieving continuous improvement.
• This will enable a feedback loop, where your inspectors can show you where your inspection report needs improvements. This leads to improving the quality management process and better communications.

Apply these inspection techniques and inspectors will naturally gravitate to a consistent quality inspection process in the construction lifecycle.

If you'd like to learn about how FTQ360 Inspection Software can help you create a consistent inspection process, visit FTQ360.com and sign up for a free trial or live demo.