The jewelry industry is an ancient industry. Our ancestors fashioned jewelry products by hand for thousands of years out of wood, stone, bone, leather and metal. Even though the tools look different now, the basic processes haven't changed much over time. Because we in the jewelry industry tent to think of our products as art rather than products of industry, we have at times been slow to adapt the modern production management methods and the technology available in other industries. Most of us, for example, achieve desired product quality levels through massive inspection rather than focus on the process of production to make improvements that minimize or eliminate the source of nonconforming material. In the 1920s, Dr. Walter Shewhart, a researcher at Bell Telephone Laboratories, observed that all manufacturing processes display variation. As a result of this observation, he developed a theory of Statistical Quality Control. Shewhart's work has been expanded over the years into what we now understand as Statistical Process Control (SPC). SPC is defined as "a scientific method of analyzing data and using the analysis to solve practical problems." The purpose of SPC can be defined as the "relentless struggle to minimize variation in our processes." The evolution of modern Q.A. theory can be traced from massive inspection after production to SPC during production to the current product and process design before production. There are 13 basic problem-solving techniques used to ensure quality today. Of these, we will discuss the seven that are most frequently used by Q.A. technicians.

Author: Mickey Kaehr