Quality control

Quality control is the inspection and testing of products or processes to determine whether they meet defined requirements. It identifies defects and supports decisions about acceptance, correction, or rejection.

Statistical process control: The use of statistical methods to monitor process performance and distinguish routine variation from unusual changes. Control charts reveal when a process may be drifting beyond acceptable limits.
Quality: The degree to which characteristics of an entity meet requirements or satisfy stated and implied needs. Quality control evaluates whether outputs achieve this broader standard.
Good manufacturing practice: Regulatory requirements that ensure products are consistently produced and controlled to specified quality standards. Manufacturing controls and records support reliable checks in regulated production.
Quality management: The coordinated activities used to direct and control an organization with regard to quality. Quality control is one operational part of this wider organizational system.
Acceptance sampling: A method for deciding whether to accept a production lot by inspecting a sample rather than every item. It provides a decision rule when inspecting every product is impractical.
Quality assurance: Planned and systematic activities that provide confidence a product or process will meet quality requirements. It emphasizes preventing failures through the system, rather than detecting defects in outputs.
Software testing: The execution or analysis of software to find defects and assess whether it meets requirements. Testing applies quality-control principles to software behavior and releases.
Total quality management: An organization-wide approach that seeks continuous quality improvement through broad employee involvement. It extends beyond inspection to make quality a shared responsibility.
Control chart: A time-ordered graph with statistical limits used to detect changes in a process. It makes process variation visible across successive measurements.
Specification: A documented set of requirements that a product, service, or process must meet. A check cannot determine conformity until the required limits are defined.

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