Willkommen zurück im Business English Pod für die heutige Lektion, the first in a two-part series on quality control. In dieser Lektion, we’ll focus on the manufacturing side of things.
Successful companies understand the importance of quality. At minimum, quality control is about meeting industry standards or regulations. Beyond that, quality is a huge factor in brand reputation and customer satisfaction. And a commitment to strong QC, or quality control, can also lead to significant cost savings.
Given these benefits, no wonder many companies have entire teams or positions dedicated to monitoring quality. Und, just like any other area of expertise, quality control comes with its own special language. Much of this language appears in set expressions that we call “collocations.” In fact, I just used one when I mentioned “monitoring quality.” To monitor quality is a common collocation related to quality control.
Kollokationen are just natural combinations of words. Certain verbs and adjectives always go with certain nouns. And certain nouns often combine to create a special meaning. If you just learn new words individually, you might miss these natural combinations.
Im heutigen Dialog, we’ll hear a conversation between Paolo and Emma. Paolo works for a company that manufactures, sells, and services solar panels. Emma is a quality control consultant. Paolo’s company is looking to hire Emma to conduct a quality control audit, or a review of their systems. Während ihres Gesprächs, they use lots of English collocations, was wir später in der Nachbesprechung erklären werden.
Fragen zum Zuhören
1. What does Paolo say they did after completing a safety audit?
2. What kind of testing will Emma’s work not include?
3. What is the purpose of “pulling samples” in quality control?
Download: Podcast MP3
