Four aspects of a quality control checklist

Why are quality control checklists important?

The quality control checklist, also known as a quality inspection checklist, quality control form, and QC audit checklist, is a written guideline for products, packaging, potential defects, functions, and special requirements.

A quality control checklist is essential. On the one hand, it clearly defines your product specifications, providing suppliers with a reference so they can accurately and quickly understand your product ideas, thereby improving sourcing efficiency. At the same time, it also provides inspection standards that can help reduce product defects.

On the other hand, this checklist can ensure that your product meets regulatory requirements, avoiding rejection at customs or other restrictions. For example, if your toy's quality control checklist indicates it has passed EN71 certification with CE marking, you won't have to worry about getting stuck in customs and can sell it in the EU market.

Quality Control Inspection Checklist Template

Below is the first page of a quality control inspection checklist template for a dog kennel, provided by Insight Quality.

Clearly lists the sampling level (usually the AQL level), the defect classification, and the inspection control point description.

If you want to create your own quality control checklist, you can refer to this template.

Four aspects of a quality control checklist
Product requirements
The product is the main content of inspection, including:

Material and construction

This part focuses on verifying that the materials used, such as wood, plastic, and metal, meet quality standards and that the product's structure is robust, stable, and free of defects or damage. It is also necessary to check for any hazardous elements, such as sharp edges, wood chips, or debris, in the product.

Weight and dimension

Here, I'm taking a dog kennel as an example. The main objective is to check whether the product's specifications meet the prescribed size and weight to ensure it's suitable for dogs of different sizes.

Color

The color of the product is usually verified by comparing it to a Pantone color chart.

Labeling and marking

This part focuses on checking whether the labeling is clear, accurate and complete and whether it complies with relevant regulations and standard requirements, such as CE marking, UL certification, etc., to ensure the safety and reliability of product quality.

Packaging requirements

Packaging inspection is also critical. Quality and careful packaging not only reduces the risk of product damage during shipping, but also helps promote your brand and attract consumers.

Appearance of the packaging

The key to verifying the appearance of the packaging is to check whether it is sealed, deformed, or damaged. Additionally, for better securing and protecting the goods, it is necessary to check whether additional protective measures are in place, such as securing multiple boxes with pallets and wrapping film.

Labeling requirements for cardboard boxes

It is necessary to observe whether the outer packaging has shipping marks, weight and volume marks, certificate of origin, as well as indicative and warning signs (if necessary) and whether they are clear, legible and precise.

Packaging materials

Each product may have different packaging requirements. Therefore, it's necessary to confirm whether the packaging materials are appropriate for each situation. For example, fragile or perishable products may require additional cushioning pads or silica gel desiccant packets to keep them fresh throughout transit.

Packaging regulations

Each country has different packaging regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that product packaging meets these requirements. For example, products packaged in plastic bags must be shipped to the US with small holes and suffocation warning labels.

Regulations and tests
To ensure compliance, your product or packaging may require certain tests, some of which are common, including:

Drop test for cardboard packaging
Moisture content test (for wood products such as furniture)
Vulcanization test (for rubber products, especially footwear)
Functional testing (for mechanical and electronic products)
Defect classification
The quality control checklist should classify defects, indicating their number and tolerance. It can be divided into critical, major, minor, and hold defects.

Here's the quality report for the dog kennel above. Some defects, including improper marking of crates and damaged crates, are considered serious defects. This means there's no danger to human safety, but it doesn't meet your quality standards.

You can mention specific quality defects or other issues to suppliers and indicate which ones you accept and which ones you don't. You can even provide photos and describe the degree of acceptance of different issues.