Design control helps mitigate risk by establishing a set of quality practices and procedures as it relates to the products design or development. A product that lacks quality protocols can potentially fail to meet its designed potential. The product needs to be capable of being replicated over and over again while still functioning the same with each assembly. The lack of a design control can introduce variations in the products intended design and functionality. 

Design control makes sure that everything was manufactured properly.  It makes sure no corners were cut and that the product it is producing will be of the highest quality so that it doesn't harm the consumer.

Properly constructed and conducted design controls are integral to mitigating the risk of a product. The purpose of design controls is to ensure that corporations uphold their responsibility of releasing good products, that is produced in an ethical manner and does not hurt its intended users. Design controls also test the products before they are released and thus ensures they are the correct specifications and for the intended user. There are nine components to design controls and documentation of some sort for each section is required by law therefore even if a company should choose to do the bare minimum requirements, the product is still considerably less risky that it would be were design control protocols not implemented. Design control documents are also subject to scrutiny by any regulatory agency world wide and would behoove companies to generate thorough design controls. 

Design controls are crucial to risk mitigation, especially in a medical device company. Design controls are a series of steps taken to ensure that the inputs of the device is matched by the output of the device and that it properly achieves its intended purpose. During this procedure, many documents are created, including quality control documents, which establishes the standards to which every facet of the device should operate by as well as the margin of error on the device. Deciding on a margin of error as well as a rate of failure is incredibly important in risk mitigation, as they are a part of quality control and failing to meet them means an unacceptable level of risk. By falling within these standards set by the quality control documents, the device has an acceptable level of risk.

Design controls also allow for the inherent mitigation of risks by forcing the people considering the design input to ask questions they may not normally think of which regard to device risk. Every input can be associated with various risks and following design controls can help engineers understand how these risks can be mitigated as much as possible.

Design controls are important for any manufacturing or R&D role because it allows it would ideally provide limitations of what is safe enough to be used or allowed in specifications, which is typically discovered during experimentation/research, or mistakes found/recalls made from marketed products. Rather than answering the public outcry of when a product fails, the scrutiny from all governing bodies could be avoided by these companies scrutinize their own products and modifications to ensure that whatever is being made is as safe as it can be.

The purpose of design control is to create a structured method of managing the design and development process of the product being made. There are several ways design control can be conducted. Design control helps define the requirements of the product as well as provide risk analysis and ways to manage any risks that may arise. Design controls also include documentation of each step of the process and verification and validation that ensures that the product meets the design requirements. Lastly, design controls also document any changes that need to be made along with continuous improvement that should be taken into consideration.