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What distinguishes Quality Assurance from Quality Control?
Quality Assurance (QA) means the process used to develop the deliverables and can be performed by a manager, client, or even a third-party reviewer.
Examples of quality assurance include management processes, process checklists, project audits, methodologies, and standards development.
Quality Control (QC) refers to quality-related activities linked with the creation of project deliverables.
The quality control approach is useful to ensure that deliverables are of acceptable quality and that they are complete and correct.
Examples of quality control activities include inspection/testing, deliverable peer evaluations, and the testing process.
Quality Assurance vs Quality Control
Many people including even some quality professionals do not realize what is difference between quality control and quality assurance.
Some people use both of these terms often interchangeably. However, these terms are different in meaning as well as their intent and use.
Given here are important comparative points of quality assurance and quality control.
QA vs QC Approach – Quality assurance is a form of guarantee that relies upon the process approach.
In any organization, its quality monitoring and assurance systems ensure that the processes and systems are established and adhered to in such a way that the deliverables are of good quality.
This process is aimed to generate defect-free goods or services which means being right the first time with no or little rework.
On the other side quality control is a product-based strategy.
It evaluates whether the deliverables satisfy the quality objectives as well as the specifications of the customers or not.
Depending upon the results, relevant remedial action is conducted by quality control personnel.
The Sequence of Quality Assurance and Quality Control Application
One of the important features of qa vs qc is that assurance of quality is done before starting a project or production, whereas quality control occurs once the product manufacturing or production starts.
During the assurance of quality or monitoring process, the requirements of the customers are defined.
Based on those requirements, the processes and systems are established and documented.
All this is done to make sure that the requirements of the customers are fulfilled stringently.
After manufacturing the product, the quality control process starts. Based on the customer requirements and standards created during the quality guarantee process, the quality control department checks whether the manufactured product fits all those requirements or not.
So, assurance of quality is a proactive or preventative process to avoid faults and quality control is a corrective process to detect defects in order to correct them.
Major QA QC Activities
Most activities falling under the ambit of quality guarantee or assurance are performed by management, customers, and third-party auditors.
These activities include process documentation, setting standards, generating checklists, conducting internal audits, conducting external audits, failure mode effect analysis, and training.
On the other hand engineers, inspectors, and supervisors on the shop floor execute quality control activities.
Their activities include conducting and receiving inspections, final inspections, in-process inspections, etc.
Interdependence of Quality Control vs Quality Assurance (QA vs QC)
Quality control and quality assurance activities are largely interconnected. The quality assurance department relies largely on the comments supplied by the quality controller department.
For example, if there are repeated problems with the quality of the products, then the quality control department offers feedback to the quality monitoring and assurance people that there is a problem in the process or system that is producing product quality problems.
Subsequently, the quality assurance department discovers the main cause of the problem and subsequently brings adjustments to the process to ensure that there are no quality concerns in the future.
Similarly, the quality control department follows the guidelines and standards established by the QA department to check whether deliverables fulfill the quality requirements or not.
Hence, both these departments are vital to maintaining a good quality of the deliverables. These two methodologies linked with other frameworks can produce overall quality management for an organization.
Although both quality assurance and quality control are independent processes, because of their significant dependency, it becomes difficult to pinpoint the differences between the two.
In truth, there is a very thin line that separates the two functions.
There are very few organizations in the world that create these departments independently otherwise generally one department performs the functions of both.
Hope this detailed information helps you to grasp the difference between quality assurance versus quality control departments.
FAQs
What is Quality Assurance (QA) and how is it different from Quality Control (QC)?
QA refers to the set of activities that are carried out to ensure that a product or service meets the required quality standards before delivery to the customer. QC, on the other hand, is the process of inspecting the final product or service to ensure that they meet the desired quality standards.
Why is QA important?
QA is an essential part of any product development process as it helps to identify defects and issues early in the product life cycle. This allows for timely corrective action to be taken, which can save time, resources, and costs.
What are some common techniques used in QA?
Some common techniques used in QA include unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, and user acceptance testing.
What are some common techniques used in QC?
Some common techniques used in QC include inspection, sampling, statistical process control, and testing.
How do QA and QC work together?
QA and QC are both necessary for ensuring the overall quality of a product or service. QA helps to prevent defects from occurring by establishing processes and procedures to follow, while QC helps to detect and correct any defects that have occurred. Together, these two processes help to ensure that the final product or service meets the desired quality standards.
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