Understanding Quality Functions

Most production environments comprise several processing or data-collection areas. Each area can perform a different function and potentially yield unique process and traceability information. This makes it necessary to configure the quality control environment to ensure that it is capable of collecting information that is relevant to the business needs.

You can configure Quality to emulate these various data collection requirements through the use of quality functions. A quality function is a set of fields that identifies nonparametric information and maps process-specific field information into Quality for process identification, data tracking, and analysis.

Quality manages individual data-collection requirements simultaneously by not imposing a fixed-field hierarchy or traceability structure. Identifying key process information is essential to implementing effective quality control plans. You create a new configuration level (quality function) that defines the fields and attendant information that provides a base level for inspection plan creation and integration.