Test procedures

Test procedures are written to provide consistent QC procedures by the manufacturer. Sometimes it is a simple check list and sometimes critical parameters need to be tracked for Statistical Process Control. For high volume production, automated or semi-automated jigs are created to minimize labor and operator errors. Tracking critical parameters allows the product manager to observe manufacturing trends or anomalies over time. This provides feedback for troubleshooting sudden quality problems like yield or drift. Also, lot variations can occur from component suppliers and this provides a mechanism to trace the source of the problem.

Test procedures are one component of the QA/QC plan. Working with manufacturing to track critical measurements is the next step, and finally having an engineer watching the quality for sudden shifts or trends provides feed back to the designers for continuous improvement.