Inspection vs. Testing

Quality control (QC) uses both inspection & testing procedures that are equally significant in a company's quality control program. Testing is a term in quality control referring to assessment of functional aspects of product while inspection is utilized to assess the quality and its design specifications. The item tested in the QC testing is observed throughout actual operation or under conditions that may be present during operation. For instance, to know whether the product is functioning properly, this is tested, by running it for a certain period of time.

Sometimes, testing process is of destructive nature, in which restricted numbers of items are sacrificed to ensure the quality of majority of items. Efforts are made to devise methods called as nondestructive testing (NDT) & nondestructive evaluation (NDE) to save the cost incurred during destructive testing.