RMIT

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

MITHILA ERANDA LIYANAARACHCHI

STUDENT ID - 3570101

RMIT UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA,

MELBOURNE

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Quality Assurance and Quality Control systems in

clothing manufacturing factories

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality Assurance can be simply said as “ZERO DEFECTS”. If a company is practicing quality assurance

system, they should never produce defects. Bringing quality into the product at designing stage is

Quality Assurance. Quality assuring is being proactive. Proactive means thinking forward before

something happens and taking necessary measures to prevent them. So in other words , we can say

Quality Assurance is “Prevention”. Point to be note in this system is, this will be quite expensive than a

Quality Control system. That is because of higher factory overheads, expensive maintenance and higher

salary scales of workers because they only recruit very skilled workers.

So these kinds of factories will only get orders from leading brands like Nike, Zara, H&M, Adidas,

Gucci, etc.

What is Quality Control?

Quality Control is done when a defect occur. So this is the “Reaction” for the occurred defect. Under this

they act after something happens, not prior to that. For instance, machine operators will have to do

re-work when those defects are produced. So this is a Reactive system and there will be defects without

a doubt. To be note, this system is not very costly as a Quality Assurance system, because the factories

will not use latest technologies and machines for production. And also they don’t recruit only the skilled

people.

So the leading brands will never place an order in a factory which practices Quality Control system.

They will receive orders from mid-range brands like banana republic, M&S, La-Senza, etc.

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What is better, Pro-action or Reaction?

This in other words, what is better, Quality Assurance or Quality Control? The answer is pretty simple,

who likes defective items? But since we are talking about apparel sector, there is this “cost factor”

which factory people are much concerned about. Or else being proactive is always better than being

reactive. So we can prevent the things that we do not expect and stay without reacting unnecessarily.

When considering the status-quo of Sri Lankan Apparel industry, the number of produced defects is at a

higher level. So that means it incurs additional cost for re-work. Therefore practicing Quality Assurance

system is the best way to produce garments.

E.g. Assume two different factories are there, one as “A” and other one as “B”.

Factory “A” practices the traditional Quality Control system and the factory “B” practices Quality

Assurance system. They both produce trousers...

After the manufacturing process, end products of both the factories look perfectly similar.

But after wearing it for like 3months, the trouser which was made out from factory “A” which is

practicing QC has got pilling on it around the seating area. And the one came out from factory “B”

which is practicing QA, still looks perfectly new.

The reason behind the above incident is, Factory “A” (QC factory) is not looking forward. Furthermore

they never use first quality raw material and methods for the production. So there will be more

customer complaints and customer dissatisfaction. And there is also a possibility of losing orders. The

factory “B” (QA factory) uses quality raw material and methods for the production, so there are no

defects and no complaints regarding its quality. Therefore they will receive more and more orders.

Comparison between Quality Assurance and Quality Control system (with regard

to a clothing manufacturing plant) will be on the following page…

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Comparison between Quality Assurance and Quality Control System

Quality Assurance system (QA)

Quality Control system (QC)

1. Zero defects

2. Durable product and less complains

3. Manufacturing cost will be expensive

when compared to QC (Due to expensive

factory overheads, salary scales and

maintenance )

4. Only skilled operators are working under

QA system

5. Best machines / technology are used for

manufacturing in QA system

6. Uses the best available method for each

and every operation

7. More customer satisfaction

8. More possibility of getting more new

orders

9. Higher initial cost

10. QA system is costly when compared to QC

system (Salary scales, maintenance cost

will be higher )

1. Defects can be made

2. Not durable and more complains

3. Manufacturing cost is not so expensive as

QA

4. Not very skilled workers are working under

QC system

5. Not using the best machines / technology

for manufacturing in QC system

6. Not using the best method, but the cheapest

method

7. Less customer satisfaction

8. Less possibility of getting more orders

9. Initial cost is not higher as QA system

10. Not very costly as QA system. Maintenance

cost and salary scales will be very low when

compared to QA system

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