Quality is a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects.
When you review a product you’re buying, control panels for example, what is “quality” and what exactly are you looking for? Is it the perceived quality of the component manufacturers – i.e. PLC, HMI, relays, etc.? Is it the quality of the overall assembled product when using different component manufacturers? Does craftsmanship enter into quality? Is factory acceptance testing (FAT) a part of overall quality? If you said yes to any or all of these questions, WHY is quality so important?
I would submit that YES is the answer to all of the above and here are just a couple of reasons:
- Containing costs (lost labor, downtime, and scrap material) is a priority in the manufacturing environment and can be done through purchasing quality machinery and their associated control systems. How much is downtime?
- Training staff to understand the cost of poor quality is an imperative. Repairing a defect in the field is very costly. Damaged reputation, replacement parts, and warranty work all come into calculating the cost of poor quality.