Governing the quality in China’s industries has grown over the last few decades in order to suit the current economic realities. Chinese manufacturers in the past were seen as a provider of cheap and poor quality products. However, this has drastically changed with the country being able to invest in its infrastructure, technology and people. In the present time, China is host to some of the biggest and biggest technological manufacturing complexes.

China today has assumed the parameter of the world’s factory, manufacturing from apparels and textile to machinery and electronics and automobiles. The increase in quality consciousness has forced organizations in China to integrate best practice QA procedures to ensure the quality of its products and to avoid as many defects as possible. In this blog post, I will cover the topic based on the developmental improvement of several industries in China concerning quality control – from basic to modern methods.

Early Quality Control Measures:

In the early phase of industrialization, quality management in China had not evolved into its current state. Customers were offered usually costly goods with a longer manufacturing process, but which lacked quality since most manufacturers aimed at high volumes of production. They lacked better tools, experienced employees, and modern quality assurance measures that could enable them to produce very quality products.

Although, with the joining of WTO in the year 2001, China had to follow the international quality standards for fulfilling the WTO standards. This resulted in the formulation of several quality assurance standards such as the ISO 9001 series, which were taken by China.

The Adoption of ISO 9001:

In the early 2000s most Chinese organizations engaged in quality management and adopted ISO 9001 as one of the quality control measures. This international requirement insists on the business adopting a technique that is aimed at providing customer satisfaction, improvement of the system with time, and minimizing occurrences of non-conformities.

Positive effects were observed in the way Chinese manufacturers manage their quality; This is because the implementation of ISO 9001 ensured that the firms developed documented procedures that are adhered to in the production and testing process. :It also helped in creating confidence among the international buyers who had shy away from sourcing their products from China due to problems of quality.

Certification Bodies and Quality Control Services:

The development of the quality control industry in China has been led by the certification bodies and quality control service suppliers. They provide some services like product testing and inspection and auditing and other related services to ensure that their products meet international standards.

The certification companies like SGS, Intertek and Bureau Veritas have fully set themselves up in China. These companies offer pre–testing and certification services for these Chinese companies to enable them to market their products in the global markets. They also perform ISO 9001 audit and other standard audits to check compliance as to quality management by the companies.

Quality Control in China Today:

However, quality control practices in Chinese industries today are markedly different from those previously described. Many Chinese manufacturers have adopted better technology and equipment in production in order to meet the required quality. They are also spending resources on capacity building to enhance their employee competency with the objective of improving performance. Quality control measures in China today include:

1. Advanced Testing Equipment: Currently, it is common for Chinese manufacturers to use testing equipment including the X-ray and spectrometer machines as well as thermal imaging cameras for testing of product quality.
2. Automated Inspection Systems: Computer vision and robotic arm are methods of automated inspection where products are scanned and checked for defects in their quality.
3. Statistical Process Control (SPC): A number of manufacturing companies in China today have adopted SPC as a tool for supervising their manufacturing processes. SPC involves the assessment of production procedures in order to get some information about them and, by the help of statistics, find possible problems.
4. Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a quality control system which seeks to reduce the likelihood of mistakes by identifying their root cause. And it has been widely used in China especially in electronic and auto industries by companies and enterprises.
5. Total Quality Management (TQM): As mentioned earlier, on the other hand, is a system that is proactive in processes that enhances organizational quality commonly referred to as Total Quality Management. It is focused on the system enhancement, customers, and avoiding mistakes. Quality control is becoming a major issue in many Chinese companies where many firms have adopted TQM.
6. Supplier Quality Management: From the current business strategies implemented by Chinese manufacturers, one of the most significant activities is engaging in supplier quality management. They are doing supplier evaluations and putting in place supplier quality control measures for their suppliers.

Conclusion:

Chinese industries’ QC practices have evolved due to the enhanced economic power, and the need to secure market access. They include the introduction and implementation of International Quality Standards, the expansion of Certification bodies and Quality control in China and usage of technology and equipment.

Chinese manufacturers are today able to produce quality goods that have high standard qualities of products in the global markets and are constantly increasing their quality assurance. As more money is invested in factories and technology it can be argued that quality control standards will continue to increase within China’s industries.