Role of Inspection in Product Quality Management Drive in Northern Noodles Ltd, Kaduna

Role of Inspection in Product Quality Management Drive in Northern Noodles Ltd, Kaduna

Chapter one

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study.

Inspectors have come under fire multiple times for their impact on staff productivity. Regardless of what critiques are levelled at them, their contributions cannot be overstated.

Inspectors play a crucial role in enhancing employee productivity by providing information, interpersonal skills, and technical abilities. Without their involvement, organisations cannot function effectively.

Doug Wallace, a Materials Management subject expert at Life Cycle Engineering [L.C.E] Consultancy Company in Charleston, South Carolina, provided an apt and practical instance in a paper presentation titled “Maintenance and Reliability Inventory Management” that emphasises the importance of inspection.

He asked, “Have you heard about the guys who burned up a brand new piece of rotating equipment because it was installed without oil?” That minor blunder cost $80,000 to replace. When properly lubricated, it would have been less than $100.”

Again, he said, “What about the guys who cut a section out of their raw materials feeder line only to discover that the replacement piece was just a little too short to fit into the gap?” That minor error resulted in thousands of dollars in unexpected maintenance and perhaps hundreds of thousands in lost production.”

This comes to mind two well-known examples in Nigeria: the Indomie Instant Noodles Poisoning Crisis of 2004 and the Pfizer Poisoning Crisis of Kano in 1996. What these organisations endured in terms of expense, output income loss, and image is only imaginable.

Again, operating in an unpredictable climate with fierce competition, product quality management has become, in more ways than one, the organization’s lifeblood.

Regardless, and as important as product quality is to the organization’s performance, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to fulfil the goals of improving, maintaining, and sustaining product quality without the eagle eye of inspection.

Inspection is a word with many synonyms, thus whether a writer uses the words examination, observation, investigation, or evaluation, it is still inspection, and sometimes the word testing is used depending on what is being inspected.

The general notion and concept is to assess or determine the quality or compliance of materials, products, and components to predetermined standards and specifications.

So, materials outsourced or insourced, whether as raw materials, components, replacement parts, or MROs, as well as the organization’s output, are thoroughly examined to ensure that they meet criteria and standards before being certified for production or consumption.

This emphasises the subtle but distinct fact that inspection and quality are inseparable Siamese twin concepts, with one rarely spoken without referencing the other. In truth, inspection is a method that many organisations use to achieve their product quality management goals.

Thus, in order to understand the basis for inspection and its role in an organization’s product quality management drive, a concise but lucid perspective of specification and standardisation, as well as the concepts of quality management, quality control, and quality assurance, will be required, as they are intertwined and difficult to discuss separately.