Keeping Quality Inspection Running Smoothly During Economic Turbulence

This past year, the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus has shaken the world. And although many industries are remaining resilient, others are faced with growing economic uncertainty in these challenging times. To add to this already challenging economic landscape brought on by COVID-19, the manufacturing industry was already faced with some economic challenges finding a U.S. manufacturing contraction in September 2019 that were near the same contraction levels seen during the Great Recession of 2009.

While we navigate through these unprecedented times, organizations are actively looking for ways to manage their critical business processes in a manner that doesn’t degrade the quality of services, while also balancing the inherent economic implications of this shifting business environment. One of the critical aspects of the manufacturing product life cycle is a quality inspection. Often when organizations are forced to make decisions regarding how to keep critical business processes running on a tighter budget in an economic downturn, cutting quality inspection can be tempting.

Why Is Quality Inspection Critical to Maintain a Healthy Business Practice?

Quality inspection has always been a vital business process that can at times be undercut to reduce costs. Often, when organizations believe in the effectiveness of their manufacturing process, they can minimize the importance of taking added measures in their quality inspection process. Unfortunately, this alluring consideration to cut corners on quality inspection and reduce some of the overhead in the manufacturing process can lead to serious challenges down the road. Often, in doing so, clients may be the first to realize a degradation in the product offered before the manufacturer catches wind that their quality inspection process is not detecting faulty components that are making it out into production. It’s critically important for organizations to understand that cutting corners here almost always leads to unforeseen challenges and a drop in customer satisfaction.

How Can Organizations Maintain Health Quality Inspection Practices in an Economic Downturn?

One of the most important considerations during an economic downturn is to remember that a healthy economic landscape is around the corner. By taking the appropriate measures in an economic downturn, organizations can actually come out of these challenging times better positioned than ever before to grow their business. Let’s dig into some of the specific considerations and strategies organizations can implement in the midst of an economic downturn to maintain healthy quality inspection processes and be better positioned for growth following the economic contraction.

Where Can Costs Be Reduced?

As you assess your unique positioning, consider ways to limit cost without limiting quality inspection. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you might find yourself having to shift employees to working remotely. Of course, this may not be an option for quality and inspection departments due to the nature of the process typically involving a very “hands-on” approach with methods used during inspecting parts. For certain types of positions, moving to reduced shifts, lights out automation (if possible), remote programming, etc. may allow you to sustain the level of effectiveness while weathering through the pandemic.

Can Liquid Assets Weather the Storm?

Another consideration is to look at the effectiveness of your business pre-downturn. Was customer retention high? Were you growing year over year? If so, it may be a time to double down on your business and invest. By taking a business loan or liquidating some unnecessary business assets, an organization can weather the uncertainty and ensure they are not giving up on quality during these uncertain times. Also, keep in mind when other organizations may choose to compromise on quality to stay afloat, their customers will catch on and look elsewhere for a higher-quality product. By doubling down, organizations can actually capture a lot of net new business when their competitors try and cut corners on quality!

In building some liquidity through downsizing on physical assets, organizations can then benefit from the ability to work with a 3rd party service and outsource some of the work that was previously done in-house with these physical assets. In doing so, organizations can greatly benefit from removing overhead and actually lower their operational costs while still benefiting from high-quality services through an outsourced provider.

Why IIA?

For years, Industrial Inspection & Analysis has been one of the leading dimensional measurement laboratories in the United States. Servicing nearly every industry, our team provides industry-leading precision measurement, inspection, engineering, and quality assurance services. If your organization is in the process of offloading physical in-house work, consider working with us. We're proud to support organizations by providing high-quality dimensional measurement services, allowing organizations to meet their dimensional measurement requirements while optimizing their costs.