Meaning & use
quality control
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablebusiness
The system of inspecting and testing products or services to make sure they meet a required standard before reaching customers.
Grammar: Uncountable: quality control is essential, not a quality control.
Patterns
- quality control of something
- quality control for something
Quality control rejected a batch of faulty batteries.
Strict quality control keeps the factory's error rate low.
She works in quality control at a bakery.
noununcountable
The department or team in a company responsible for such inspection.
Grammar: Often used with no article as a department name: report it to quality control.
Patterns
- send something to quality control
The defect was reported to quality control.
Quality control signed off on the new design.
He transferred from assembly to quality control.
Common combinations
- pass quality control
- All items must pass quality control before shipping.
- strict quality control
- Strict quality control keeps customers happy.
- quality control inspector
- The quality control inspector found a crack.
- quality control check
- Every batch gets a quality control check.
- lack of quality control
- A lack of quality control caused the recall.
Synonyms and how they differ
- quality assurance
- Quality assurance focuses on preventing defects through good processes, while quality control detects them by testing outputs.
- inspection
- Inspection is a single act of checking, while quality control is the whole system.
- testing
- Testing is one method used within quality control.
Word family
- quality noun
- how good or bad something is
- control noun
- the power to direct or limit
- controller noun
- a person or device that controls
Commonly confused: quality control or quality assurance?
quality control vs quality assurance
Assurance is the prevention side, while control is the checking side.
Practice
Inspectors measure each bottle to see that it meets a standard. This is called ___.
Choose one answer.
Quality control checks products against a standard. The other options describe different business activities.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quality control”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.