The integration of quality control and shop floor control

Quality control refers to the operational techniques and activities required to manufacture products conforming to their specifications. It is part of company-wide quality management. Quality management and quality control should not be considered as isolated functions but must be integrated into the other functions of a manufacturing system, like design, process planning and production control. Shop floor control is directed to the control and monitoring of the activities on the shop floor. It is responsible for the in-time completion of production jobs and an efficient use of resources. The relation between quality control and shop floor control is twofold. Quality control contributes to the due date reliability. In addition, the quality-related activities must be attuned to the other manufacturing activities. This paper deals with the integration of quality control and shop floor control. Based on the ISO 9000 Standards series, five quality tasks are distinguished which are related to shop floor control. Special attention is paid to the inspection activities, being the most important part of quality control. The quality-related activities can be controlled in an integral way by so-called quality jobs. This holds for both the inspection activities as well as the management of the resources required for quality control. The activities which take place in the quality room are controlled by a so-called quality station controller. The functional architecture and information structure for quality station control are presented. The implementation of a prototype of a quality station control module is discussed. Further extensions towards enhanced quality management are described.