GCSE Graphic Products Systems, control procedures and industrial practices. Summer Examination 2011

Quality assurance & Quality control What is the difference? Quality assurance is the process through which the designer actually states what quality he or she wants the product to have when it is finally made. Quality assurance is built into the plans for a project so you will make the best choices during the design process, ensuring that the outcome is made to the best possible standard. It aims to make products that are safe, value for money, efficiently produced, and economical for the intended user. Quality control is the measures that are put into place to ensure that the quality standards are met at critical points of the making process. Quality control is checked at critical points during the manufacturing and production of a product. Tolerance is an example of quality control measures that are put into place, which is an acceptable range of accuracy.

Industrial practices Scaling up production Production lines: a set of machinery required to make a product from start to finish. Imagine you are making the packaging for an Mp3 player, what are the different steps you would take to get a finished product? Download settings to CNC die cutterUse pre-set net from a dedicated CNC software package the designers or client for approvalReceive a specification from the clientNets cut to exact settingsFinished nets sent to industrial assemblyElectronic transfer of images and text to the netDesign graphics and text using graphics package on a PC

Quantity Production Quantity production Depending on demand, products are made using a range of quantities, from large scale or ‘mass’ production (screws, light bulbs) to a one off product (bespoke items). There are advantages and disadvantages to this. Level of Production Numbers made AdvantagesDisadvantagesExamples One Off production 1 Easy to set up and change Very high individual costs A sculpture, coursework Batch production 1 – 10,000 Adaptable process of making so quite easy to change Machines are expensive to buy and set up Bottles, perfumes, POS Mass production 10,000+ Cost of individual items is low Even more expensive than batch production to set up Cars Continuous production Millions Easy to make the same item cheaply to a very high standard Cannot change if demand falls Paper production, cans etc.