Calibration is something that we witness in every aspect of life. From setting our iPhone compass into the correct position to put a digital food scale to zero, calibration is done to minimize inaccuracy in a measurement while quantifying and controlling errors or uncertainties of a measurement process to an acceptable level. Pharmaceutical is one industry that absolutely cannot forego this step. A best pharmaceutical calibration practice ensures the highest safety and quality assurance standards while making their manufacturing process reliable, accurate, and precise.
Inspection by attributes is one such practice that ensures reliable and effective sampling of medicinal products while maintaining the highest quality standards.
In simplest terms, inspection-by-attributes decide whether an attribute or a property is conforming or not to a specific requirement. Non-conformity indicates that a particular property doesn’t abide by the required standards. However, it needn’t be a defect. A defect is more indicative of a problem that should result in rejection resulting from unsafe or unstable devices.
Now, there can be several attributes used to reject material or an item, with the most common ones being:
Color
Presence/ absence of an item
Scratches
Attribute inspection segregates items into either good or defective.
It’s important to note that a defect due to an attribute is always counted in whole numbers. There’s no such thing as 1.7 defect or 2.39 defects. It’s either present or not.
What’s the Importance of Attribute Inspection and Its Benefits?
Inspection by attribute offers several advantages while making the classification process of items and detecting defects while ensuring quality easier by manifolds. It saves time, improves efficiency while ensuring a high level of accuracy within a process. Inspection-by-attributes, therefore, stand as a more economical option while sampling gets prohibitive.
Following are its benefits explained in brief:
LESS TIME
The sampling process requires a lot less time than 100% of a lot. By reducing the timeline, the inspection process also saves up on the cost. This way, the manufacturing process speeds up while rolling out products at a faster rate with swift approval. As the rejection is based on attributes and whole numbers, as compared to inspection by variables, attribute inspections narrow down properties based on which a person is sorting the items. An item may have multiple variables that may require testing instead of sorting through an attribute while assessing the conformity of a product.
GREATER EFFICIENCY AND ACCURACY
Testing a big sample/ batch can be overwhelming can cause fatigue among testing professionals. This makes a batch more prone to manual errors and mistakes due to tiredness and excessive exhaustion. Sampling smaller batches rather than the whole lot at once protects the entire sample altogether. In addition to detecting unseen changes, inspection-by-attributes allows more products to preserve their value without undergoing any dramatic changes during testing.
Since the professionals need to handle fewer batches at a time, they can do it more efficiently while taking less time.
Well-calibrated instruments and devices are the backbone of attribute inspection, and the pharmaceutical industry is one such vertical that cannot tolerate the mistake of incorrect calibration. Therefore, it is advisable to get your instruments calibrated by experts. Contact Custom Calibration today to experience the expert difference or browse our website for our service info.