by Peter Wolf.

I’m convinced that the commitment of PRS Guitars to quality control (QC) and the way we’ve approached the subject has been one of the main reasons why we are where we are today. Journalists and dealers worldwide have stated over and over that PRS Guitars has raised the bar in manufacturing electric guitars over the past 20 years, which seems to have impacted pretty much everyone who makes a living from manufacturing and selling guitars. Obviously, this also means that players have benefited by receiving a better instrument.

On the other hand, such quality control and ‘raising and maintaining the bar’ on an ongoing basis has a cost side to it that is significant. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits and costs of extensive quality control as it's practiced at PRS on a daily basis.

Our QC policy boils down to strictly policing one another

Quality control starts long before we actually receive timbers and parts. By working with the best wood suppliers, machine shops, makers of hardware and electronics parts, we strive for using the best and most accurate materials we can get our hands on. If these parts and materials can’t be found, we make them ourselves.

The production flow at the manufacturing level is set up in a way that when a work area receives guitars from the previous process, they look them over to determine if moving forward is going to be a problem for them or not. If it is, they reject it and return it to its area of origin. The previous work area figures out what caused the problem, corrects it if possible, and sends it along again. Obviously, the re-work rate is crucial to higher numbers of high quality instruments. The current re-work rate at PRS Guitars is the lowest it has ever been in the history of our company.

In the earlier days, our purchasing agent had to deal with the majority of QC issues in production. Today, the PRS QC department consists of several people who do nothing else but randomly check instruments or parts throughout the shop on a daily basis. Their findings and reports aid purchasing decisions and our final sign-off process as far as manufacturing procedures are concerned. They also often impact marketing decisions (the implementation of new models, for instance) or planned time frames.

At first glance, it may seem that the employees performing QC do not immediately contribute to increased production numbers or profitability. Whenever a budget is involved that needs to be met (and that would be always), a chief financial officer might think, “We need 5 new people to sand guitars,” instead of, “We need 5 new people to inspect guitars,” unless the importance of QC, despite the related expense, is believed to contribute to long term success.

We believe QC is essential to helping a manufacturing company grow and we look at QC as an investment rather than an expense.

QC of inbound materials (e.g., timbers, hardware, screws, tuners, bridges, plated parts, plastics, fret wire)

We have to thoroughly understand the origin and history of each part and its cost to know if we are purchasing effectively. This involves engineers and the appropriate drawings for all the parts and instruments we release. Through our policing procedures and with each new generation of employees and our quest to train them better, we help the QC team do a better job, which ultimately leads to a better product. This, of course, is not what external manufacturers of parts want to hear, though by meeting with them and talking to them on a regular basis we force them to improve their parts, which helps their business be more competitive.

Almost every PRS part is customized in some way. Either the material used or the design of the part is special. You cannot just go to the store and buy a screw that will work way we want it to work.

Our computer system is set up to log all scrap. Operators in each area are responsible for logging in bad materials, which helps keep inventory correct for all parts and assemblies and provides feedback to purchasing.

Purchasing then communicates these issues to external suppliers and through dialog (if possible) with them corrects the problem. If a supplier is unwilling to spend money on improving a part they supply to us, we will look for somebody else.

QC of outbound product: U.S. & SE guitars

As soon as the actual manufacturing process has begun and we start to turn woods and parts into a musical instrument, QC becomes crucial to assure that what hits the ass end of the line is what it is supposed to be. Thousands of parts, bodies, and necks are picked and looked over to help reduce the forward movement of a product with problems. The PRS QC team consists of some of the best guitar makers and experienced employees in the company, team members who have earned their credentials in different positions in the past.

Whether they are U.S. made instruments or our Korean SE line, all instruments (and their parts) are inspected using the same procedures and methods. All resulting data is then communicated to the line managers, production manager, president, SE project manager and director of sales and marketing.

QC is taken seriously right from the beginning. It takes us about 6 months to train any new PRS employee. And then it takes another 6 months of checking over their work before they are left alone to do their job. Once they are doing their daily job, they are still monitored by a QC system that helps us provide instruments to the market place that we can be proud of and that are sought after.

What happens to ‘dogs’ that don’t cut it?

I guess some people are interested in what we do with parts (for instance necks and bodies after the finishing process) that do not pass our QC or have irreversible problems.

The answer is: We cut them up.

Many dealers and distributors have approached us in the past, wanting to buy ‘seconds’, or instruments with flaws, at reduced prices. In fact, some manufacturers have been known to offer so called 'seconds'. We never have and I don’t think we ever will.

In the beginning, we made the mistake of throwing bodies and necks or even completed guitars that didn’t pass the inspections into a dumpster. We have seen grown men jump over fences and into the dumpster after hours, trying to grab a PRS guitar or parts to re-assemble and use or sell on eBay. We have seen glued together headstocks, 24-fret necks on 22-fret bodies, parts of guitars with handwritten serial numbers, and other attempts to use PRS materials that weren’t good enough for the marketplace.

Now, however, the QC process at PRS includes being sensible about not letting any of these rejected parts out to the world. I better not tell you how much money it costs us per year to enforce this policy, but in my opinion it's worth it.