How to Differentiate Critical to Quality (CTQ) Characteristics in Your Control Plan

By James Meenan | May 3, 2021
How to differentiate critical to quality characteristics in your control plan and ballooned part drawing

What is a Critical to Quality (CTQ) characteristic?

Critical to Quality (CTQ) characteristics are features that affect the safety or function a product. A CTQ characteristic:

  • Directly impacts the safety, regulatory, or functional performance requirements of the part
  • Requires verification of part conformance during production

How do you know if a characteristic is CTQ? 

CTQ characteristics are usually identified on the part drawing, and can be marked in several ways: 

  • A pill/cartouche surrounding the dimension on the part drawing
  • Called out in a note somewhere on the drawing

Example of Critical to Quality Characteristic on a part drawing, characteristic in a "pill"

How do I differentiate CTQ characteristics in my control plans and part drawings?

With InspectionXpert, you can:

  • Set up custom balloons for CTQ features (customize shape, color, etc.)
  • Add classifications, including "Critical", to each characteristic on your drawing
  • Save your custom balloon settings to use in future projects

You can then export your ballooned part drawing to a PDF and all your characteristic data to an Excel inspection report.

How to differentiate Critical to Quality characteristics in InspectionXpert

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