Quality AS Graphics Edexcel Quality assurance Quality assurance

Quality AS Graphics Edexcel

Quality assurance ○ Quality assurance (QA) is the process through which the designer actually states what quality he or she wants the product to have when it is finally made. ○ QA – is built into the planning for production. ○ Standards are produced for designers to work to, with the aim of designing products which give value for money and are economical, efficiently produced and safe for the consumer. ○ Maintaining quality - achieved by the manufacturer when their product consistently meets a pre-determined set of quality standards.

Quality control ○ Quality control (QC) are the measures that are put into place to ensure that the quality standards are met at critical points of the making process. ○ QC – measures and checks that the designer puts into place to ensure the quality of the finished product. ○ Maintaining quality - carried out by the manufacturer at every stage by sampling. This checking can be done by measurement, testing and supervision of the various processes.

Total Quality Management (TQM) ○ Also called TQC – Total quality control ○ Organisation wide efforts to ensure high quality products ○ Used to improve their internal processes and increase customer satisfaction (it is customer focused) ○ Continuous improvement ○ QA at every stage of the production process Eg production team must produce a high quality component that the assembly team know is quality assured and will fit perfectly

Quality Control Measures in printing ○ Registration marks – alignment ○ Colour bars – colour consistency, colour density ○ Crop marks – sizes ○ Throughout a print run crop marks, registration marks and colour bars are used to ensure a consistent quality. ○ Other checks include checking the density of the inks, the quality and weight of the paper or card, on a book it could also include the binding would be checked and that the pages are in the correct order and orientation.

Registration marks ○ These are cross-haired lines that help visually ensure that a set of films or printing plates are in line or in register to produce a sharp registered result.

Colour bars ○ These are a pattern of varying colours that enable visual and numeric quality control comparisons to be made across multiple printed sheets or pages.

Crop marks ○ These are crossed lines placed at the corners of an image or a page to indicate where to trim it. They are also known as trim marks.

Printing features ○ To position print and check quality the following features are used. – Registration marks – Colour bars – Crop marks