Product Testing and Quality Control

Course Description

Product Testing and Quality Control examines the testing methods used to test manufactured products to ensure reliable performance. Testing is incorporated into an overall quality management plan and industrial testing and quality control processes are presented.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, ETI is the Engineering Technology (Industrial) prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits with an $18.30 lab fee, offered fall, with ETI1420 and ETI1110 as prerequisites, giving approximately 45 contact hours at the prefix's unsuffixed convention.

The sentence that matters is the second one. Testing in isolation produces numbers; testing incorporated into a quality management plan produces decisions. The professional question is never "did this part pass?" but "what does this result tell us about the process that produced it?" — and that shift is what separates an inspector from a quality technician.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its ETI courses, but the prefix convention is consistent: unsuffixed courses run at 15 contact hours per credit (ETI1000, ETI1411, ETI1628 and ETI1644 are all published at 3 credits and 45 hours) and C-suffixed courses at 20 (ETI1110C, ETI1701C, ETI1810C and ETI1830C are all 3 credits and 60 hours).

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the purpose and scope of quality control in manufacturing.
• Distinguish quality control, quality assurance, and quality management.
• Describe destructive and non-destructive testing methods.
• Describe mechanical testing: tensile, compression, hardness, and impact.
• Perform and interpret hardness testing.
• Describe fatigue and creep testing and their applications.
• Describe non-destructive methods: visual, dye penetrant, magnetic particle, ultrasonic, and radiographic.
• Select an appropriate test method for a material and defect type.
• Describe dimensional inspection and metrology principles.
• Use measuring instruments accurately and describe their limitations.
• Describe gauge repeatability and reproducibility.
• Describe calibration and traceability requirements.
• Apply sampling plans and describe acceptance sampling.
• Describe statistical process control and construct control charts.
• Interpret control charts and distinguish common from special cause variation.
• Calculate and interpret process capability indices.
• Describe reliability concepts and failure rate over a product's life.
• Describe accelerated life testing.
• Perform root cause analysis on a quality problem.
• Describe corrective and preventive action processes.
• Describe quality standards and management systems.
• Document test results and inspection records correctly.
• Describe the cost of quality and its categories.
• Communicate quality findings to production and management.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe design of experiments.
• Describe Six Sigma methodology and its tools.
• Describe failure mode and effects analysis.
• Describe supplier quality management.
• Describe audit processes and preparation.
• Prepare for an ASQ certification.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Purpose and scope of quality control
• Quality control, assurance, and management
• Destructive and non-destructive testing
• Mechanical testing methods
• Hardness testing
• Fatigue and creep testing
• Non-destructive methods
• Test method selection
• Dimensional inspection and metrology
• Measuring instruments and limitations
• Gauge repeatability and reproducibility
• Calibration and traceability
• Sampling plans and acceptance sampling
• Statistical process control
• Interpreting control charts
• Process capability
• Reliability and failure rate
• Accelerated life testing
• Root cause analysis
• Corrective and preventive action
• Quality standards and systems
• Test documentation
• Cost of quality
• Communicating quality findings

Optional Topics

• Design of experiments
• Six Sigma methodology
• Failure mode and effects analysis
• Supplier quality
• Audit processes
• ASQ certification preparation

Resources & Tools

• ASQ — American Society for Quality (asq.org) — certification bodies of knowledge and quality standards; the CQT and CQE credentials are recognised in manufacturing.
• ASME, SME, and IISE — the professional societies for mechanical, manufacturing, and industrial engineering technology; student membership is inexpensive.
• NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (nist.gov/mep) — free practical resources on manufacturing improvement.
• OSHA (osha.gov) — free standards, guidance, and the OSHA 10 and 30 construction and general industry cards.
• ASTM and ISO standards — the testing and quality standards manufacturing actually works to; check library access before buying.
• Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction (Callister) — the standard materials text.
• Your programme's laboratory and its measuring and testing equipment — the reason to take these courses in person.
• ABET (abet.org) — free accreditation lookup; worth checking for any engineering technology programme you are considering.

Career Pathways

• Industrial engineering technologist or technician — SOC 17-3026.
• Quality control inspector and quality technician — SOC 51-9061; a common entry route with clear progression.
• Manufacturing production technician and process technician.
• Industrial production manager — SOC 11-3051; the usual destination of the management courses in this prefix.
• Operations and supply chain roles — planning, scheduling, and continuous improvement.
• Technical sales engineer — SOC 41-9031; frequently the best-paid route out of a technical background, and the reason ETI3690 exists.
• Occupational health and safety specialist — SOC 19-5011.
• Aerospace and space systems technician — a distinctively Florida sector on the Space Coast and through the aerospace supply chain.
• ⚠ Many aerospace and defence roles require U.S. citizenship and some require a security clearance — find out early if that pathway interests you.
• Quality management and Six Sigma — certification-driven and well paid.
• Continue to a master's in engineering management or industrial engineering — ⚠ note that an engineering technology degree is not the same as an engineering degree for professional licensure purposes; check requirements before assuming.

Special Information

⚠⚠ Control charts distinguish the variation you should act on from the variation you should not

• This is the single most useful idea in quality control, and it is routinely misapplied. Every process varies; the question is whether a given variation means something.
• Common cause variation is the process being itself. Reacting to it — adjusting the machine because one part came out slightly high — makes the process worse, not better. This over-adjustment is called tampering and it is a classic and expensive error.
• Special cause variation is something changing — a tool wearing, a material lot differing, an operator doing something differently. That is what to investigate.
• Control limits are not specification limits. Control limits come from the process; specification limits come from the customer, and confusing them is the commonest misreading of a control chart. A process can be in control and still produce out-of-specification parts.
• Capability indices compare the two. They answer whether a stable process is actually capable of meeting the specification — and if it is not, no amount of inspection fixes it.
• Inspection does not create quality. Sorting good from bad after the fact is expensive and never catches everything; quality comes from controlling the process that makes the part.
• Plot the data as you collect it. A chart maintained in real time gives warning; one produced monthly for a report gives history.
• Investigate signals promptly and record what you found. An out-of-control signal with no recorded investigation is a missed opportunity and an audit finding.

⚠ Measurement error is part of your data, and it is bigger than students expect

• Every measurement includes the variation of the measurement system itself, and if that variation is large relative to the tolerance, your data is telling you about your gauge rather than your process.
• Gauge repeatability and reproducibility studies quantify it — repeatability is the same person measuring twice, reproducibility is different people measuring the same part.
• A gauge should be substantially more precise than the tolerance it is checking. Measuring a tight tolerance with a coarse instrument produces confident nonsense.
• Calibration and traceability matter. An instrument out of calibration has been producing wrong answers since it drifted, and everything measured with it is suspect.
• Temperature affects measurement, particularly on close tolerances and dissimilar materials.
• Technique is part of the measurement system. Contact pressure, cleanliness, and where on the part you measure all contribute.
• Record what you measured, with what, and when.

⚠ This prefix spans PSAV certificates and a bachelor's degree — know which you are in

• ETI at Daytona State runs from 0000-level PSAV clock-hour courses through to 4000-level bachelor's coursework, which is an unusually wide range for one prefix.
• The 0000-level courses carry no college credit. ETI0450, ETI0456, ETI0481 and similar are PSAV clock-hour training measured in hours, not credits — a different credential entirely.
• The 1000- and 2000-level courses carry lower-division college credit and feed associate degrees.
• The 3000- and 4000-level courses are upper division, forming part of a bachelor of applied science in engineering technology.
• ⚠ A 1000- or 2000-level course does not substitute for a 3000- or 4000-level one, even where the subject overlaps — compare ETI1420C (Engineering Materials and Processes, lower division) with ETI3421 (Materials and Processes, upper division).
• Confirm with an advisor which lower-division courses feed the BAS, and in what sequence.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

ETI2122 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours with an $18.30 lab fee, offered fall at Daytona State, with ETI1420 and ETI1110 as prerequisites.

See this repository's ETI1110C (Introduction to Quality) and ETI1701C (Quality Assurance and Inspection) guides for the surrounding sequence.