QA Inspection Checklists
Protect the quality of your products and services using a versatile mobile app
Published August 31st, 2020
What is a QA Inspection?
A quality assurance inspection (or QA inspection) refers to the formal assessment of the quality of a finished product or a rendered service. Its primary purpose is to verify if the product or service meets set internal or external quality standards. QA inspections may be performed by in-house quality assurance inspectors, or by third party contractors.
QA Inspection Checklist: 3 Principles to Follow in Creating an Effective Template
“Quality is everyone’s responsibility,” claimed the renowned engineer, professor, and management consultant W. Edwards Deming. Quality assurance, however, is a continuous process. A process that becomes harder to complete when the complexities of large-scale production and servicing are introduced. In order to stay true to a company’s promise of quality, something as simple as an effective QA inspection checklist can be the X factor.
Below are the principles QA inspection checklists must follow in order to become effective:
It must consider input from different stakeholders
Creating a product or rendering a service is a step-by-step process. Often, each step is handled by a dedicated department specializing in that section. For this reason, acquiring input from the different experts that are actually involved in the process is important since it informs your QA inspection checklist with data and insights founded on solid bases.
It must be uniform for all sites and branches
A good QA inspection checklist informed by the expertise and insights from relevant stakeholders is only as good as its effective implementation. To keep quality output consistent throughout the entire organization, quality assurance officers must ensure that the same QA inspection checklist is being used by all sites and branches. This minimizes product quality variation between manufacturing sites and locations.
It must be updated regularly and whenever necessary
The processes and standards of operations evolve due to numerous factors over time. Since a QA inspection checklist serves as one of the final checkpoints before a product or service is deemed fit for delivery, organizations must ensure that the standards enforced by their QA inspection checklist is consistent with their current quality standards.
QA Inspection: The Pros and Cons of Internal vs. External QA Practices
Budgets, preferences, and laws all influence a company’s decision to favor one type of QA practice over the other. Some companies even choose to employ a hybrid of internal and external QA practices to achieve and maintain compliance with quality standards. Regardless of your QA method of choice, each has its own pros and cons.
Pros and Cons of Internal QA Inspections
| Pros | Cons |
| No need to hire external consultants and auditors so the company saves money. | The data collected may be biased and may be used to cover up employee negligence and other malicious activities. |
| Since actual employees of the company are performing the audit, they are sure to have good context and proper understanding as to what quality looks like for the business. | Management may end up becoming too lenient when it comes to enforcing recommended changes since there is no external pressure to do so. |
| The internal audit department can verify the accuracy of inspection reports faster since data is available in-house. | Internal QA inspectors may become more and more complacent over time as they start treating the practice like a chore. |
Pros and Cons of External QA Inspections
| Pros | Cons |
| Third-party quality inspectors bring additional experience and knowledge built from conduction quality inspections for several different companies | Hiring a third-party quality inspector to conduct QA audits can be expensive. |
| Third-party quality inspectors can provide an unbiased and objective assessment report; something that may be an issue when with in-house quality inspectors. | While the perspective of a third-party auditor may be valued due to its perceived objectivity, their QA inspection may end up becoming ineffective if they lack the specialized knowledge required to understand and properly assess a specific product/service. |
| Having a third-party inspector conduct audits allows workers to focus on their regular day-to-day tasks. | The queries and demands of external auditors may require employees to work extra hours and accomplish additional tasks which contributes to workplace stress. |
Streamlining Your QA Inspection Process With the Help of a Mobile App
Successful businesses, regardless of their product or service, value quality. Valuing quality means investing in the right resources in order to consistently deliver at the highest level. Using iAuditor by SafetyCulture as a versatile mobile inspection app, businesses can achieve and maintain quality in their products and services by taking advantage of the following features:
- Easily create and customize your own QA inspection checklists with iAuditor’s simple drag-and-drop template builder. Additionally, you can download pre-made general templates from our public library, or convert your existing QA inspection checklist into our digital format.
- Pick and choose response types including multiple choice, check box, yes/no, and long and short text answers among others to make sure you get the data you need and filter out the rest.
- Capture and include high-quality photo evidence mid-inspection and annotate them to easily communicate your findings. This adds clarity to your reports to ensure that issues are identified, understood, and resolved ASAP.
- Set and trigger automatic assignments once certain conditions are met. You can also assign standalone corrective actions with priority levels so issues are triaged and resolved in order of urgency.
- No need to manually compile data to create a report post-inspection. Automatically generate professional reports after completing your inspection so you can share the information to relevant stakeholders in real-time; improving visibility across your organization.
- Have quality inspectors validate inspection reports via digital sign-offs to improve and streamline accountability.
Featured QA Inspection Checklists
Quality Assurance Inspection Form
Quality assurance officers and inspectors can use this form to record the details of identified defects on inspected units. Include details such as the inspection number, date, and name of inspector and client, as well as the description of each defect and whether they fall under the critical, major, or minor category.
QA Inspection Checklist
Quality assurance inspectors can use this product inspection checklist template to conduct comprehensive quality assessments of products before they are sent to the sales floor. Use this digital checklist to take photo evidence of product conformances and non-conformances and auto-generate comprehensive reports to detail audit findings.
ISO 9001:2015 Internal Quality Audit Checklist
An internal quality audit checklist is used to find gaps in implementing a Quality Management System (QMS). Quality managers can use this as a guide to assess the current QMS of the company and prepare for ISO 9001:2015 certification. The template is built to guide the inspector in performing the following:
- Check the company’s current standing on QMS regarding Context of the
Organization, Leadership, Planning, Support, Operation, Performance Evaluation, and Improvement. - Identify opportunities for improvement and help decide which areas to prioritize.
- Conduct regular audits to check the progress of QMS towards third-party certification for ISO 9001.
The completed sample report below provides an example of the type of internal quality audit report that can be generated instantly using the iAuditor mobile app.
GMP Compliance Checklist
A GMP compliance audit checklist assesses manufacturing practices and company adherence to manufacturing protocols. This template can be used by site managers or operations supervisors to help ensure that quality manufacturing standards are met. Use this template for help with the following:
- Check the manufacturing site’s buildings and facilities, materials management, quality control systems, manufacturing, QMS, personnel, etc.
- Take photo evidence with your mobile during the audit to better explain and correct the non-compliance.
- Results of audits are automatically compiled and scores or trends in quality are viewable on an online dashboard.
GMP Food Manufacturing Audit Checklist
This GMP audit checklist for food manufacturers is based on 21 CFR Part 110 and can be used as a guide when conducting food manufacturing audits. Inspectors can use this to:
1. Check the overall condition of the food manufacturing facility, staff, equipment, and processes.
2. Conduct audits on multiple sites/departments and the results can be viewed on one platform.
3. iAuditor templates can be edited according to business needs.
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