All You Need to Know About Quality Sorting and Inspection: What, Why and How

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What is Quality Sorting and Inspection in Supply Chain?

Manufacturing quality control relies heavily on sorting and inspection. Increased returns, brand image loss, loss of sales and other issues arise when a manufacturer devotes only a limited amount of effort to quality assurance.

Sorting and inspection services are provided by a 3PL warehouse to supplement customers’ manufacturing processes. Where a large volume or automated manufacturing application is involved that a single faulty component can halt an entire production line, our services are particularly valuable.

Inspections of goods are often appropriate in other parts of the supply chain, such as during the production process, inspections of the final finished product and inspections of items when they are processed in the warehouse. It saves the risk of sending in faulty products.

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Why is Quality Sorting and Inspection Necessary?

Sorting and inspection services offer significant benefits, such as:

  • There is more accurate reporting of defects if any
  • The shipment quality is increased
  • Sorting and inspection result in reduced returns
  • This service develops and increases good customer relations

These advantages are a cost-effective way to cut costs associated with poor quality control, and they outweigh the costs associated with lower PPM (parts per million).

Inspection services are requested for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Sorting incoming parts in preparation for shaping
  • Examining for flaws such as molding or casting
  • Ensuring the parts are assembled correctly
  • Reviewing if some parts are insufficient or have overly done plating
  • Inspection for any sort of paint defect

The faulty parts’ lot numbers or date codes can be registered and the problem parts can be quarantined for return to the vendor. Acceptable pieces should be stored in their original packages, then counted with makeup parts or packaged specifically for the consumer.

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How Quality Sorting and Inspection Works at 3PL Warehouses

Methods of sorting and inspection:

Our inspection and sorting services use a range of techniques. For particular purposes, each method has advantages.

Visual Inspection:

Visual inspection is one of the most popular inspection techniques used by manufacturers to detect surface level faults. This approach recognizes and distinguishes parts with surface cracks, rust, oxidation, contaminants, irregularities, and finishes that could cause the component to fail structurally or mechanically. Both natural eye inspection and accentuated inspection processes are used in visual inspection.

Gauging:

Gauges are used to determine whether an entity meets such dimensional requirements. Gauging measures the qualitative deviation of an object from a defined norm, while measuring tests the real measurements of the object. Gauging detects and removes sections that fall beyond the application’s permissible tolerance levels when used for quality management processes.

Checking Fixtures:

Inspection of components with complex geometric shapes often necessitates the use of a custom-designed check fixture to ensure that the component is within acceptable tolerance limits. A manufactured product is stabilized over a pattern that matches the desired shape of the component using pins attached to a foundation.

Rework of Parts:

Any separated parts can have defects such as surface finish, cracks, marring, or minor tolerance differences that can be corrected. These parts may frequently be reworked to meet the necessary requirements using techniques such as:

  • Grinding
  • Machining
  • Adhesive bonding
  • Heat staking
  • Ultrasonic welding
  • Soldering

Concerning parts can be remodeled in-house if it’s cost-effective. We will work with customers to have parts shipped directly to our facility for incoming inspection from their vendors.

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3PL warehousing, automotive logistics, trucking & transportation, e-commerce order fulfillment, contract logistics, and freight brokerage in Michigan

Visual, gauging, review fixture and component reworking are some 3PL Warehouse’s sorting and inspection facilities. Our highly skilled inspectors follow stringent quality management procedures. Furthermore, we keep detailed reports that detail the percentage of defective parts, the defect type and severity, and the affected lot numbers and provide them to the customers as well!

At Logos Logistics, we want to make sure your products are in good shape before being sent off to the final destination. We understand depending on the goods and the storage period at our warehouses, the characteristics can alter, sometimes leading to defects where some products are susceptible to degradation by cold or heat. With our quality sorting and inspection in place at our 3pl warehouses, we will ensure that your products are still in their original shape and be able to be shipped to your customers.