Quality Inspection and Maintenance: The Framework of Interaction

Manufacturing product exhibits several quality characteristics. Quality inspection becomes a crucial way to verify product conformance to requirements. Under certain inspection procedures, we may identify whether the product quality conforms to specifications or not. If the product quality fails to conform, many possible reasons come include problems from the preceding manufacturing process. Performance of the manufacturing equipment is substantial to preserve the production process. The well- maintained equipment ensures the high-quality product. The roles and advantages of quality inspection and equipment maintenance have been individually well-addressed in literatures. The investigations on these two aspects−inspection and maintenance, suggest realizing their relationships as such a way to preserve better quality assurance. However, the link between them has not been sufficiently investigated and modelled. This paper proposes a general framework of interaction between inspection and maintenance, which provide a comprehensive managerial thinking in equipment maintenance.