QUALITY ASSURANCE VS. QUALITY CONTROL

With my recent networking experiences and talking to people in the local food manufacturing industry, I have noted that the difference between quality assurance and quality control is not well understood. I hope is that this post will give a bit of information and provoke thought on what this difference means to businesses.

Definitions:

Quality Assurance (QA) - Systematic activities stemming from a quality management system.

Quality Control (QC) - Controls put into place to manage the production of a product.


Well, these definitions are fairly self explanatory and you can find similar definitions on Wikipedia.  To expand these concepts, QA is the management system that can be bundled under BRC, SQF, HACCP, ISO.  These management programs lend themselves to the "P-D-C-A" cycle.



Plan - think, formulate and train. 
Do - execute the plan. 
Check - verify that the plan is working and what changes need to be made to the plan.
Act - execute any needed changes which takes you back to the beginning.

The check function can lead to creation of KPIs. (Key Performance Indicator) which answers the question - is the process and product performing as required by the company?


Quality Control in contrast, is the front line testing which needs to be completed on the product during production.  Included is the inspection of the product for defects and the real time pulse as to how the processes is acting.  Questions answered include;
1. Does the equipment need some preventative maintenance?
2. Is the product good to ship?
3. Are the production personnel doing what they need to be doing without cutting corners?

In short, QA is process focused and QC is product focused.  If you wish to know more take a look at http://www.iso9001consultant.com.au/QA.html