Quality Assurance is a mechanism used to monitor a particular procedure or a process in order to ensure that they are up to the expected levels of quality standards. It is an integral part of the quality management system and it focuses on identifying and preventing errors in order to produce a quality output for the customers.
This will be useful in building quality into the process, product and people who are engaged in the activities within the organization. In a way, quality assurance defines the quality policy, which indicates the ways to tackle the problems or issues related with the system by saving time and the investments made for the projects.
Every day we are discovering ways to apply these tools and educate more people in the organization on the benefits of using quality tools to improve individual processes.
Defect free products and services cannot be anything other than the ideal goal of the organizational output. Any methodology and structured approach to improvement of processes is expected to be part of a functioning QMS.
Reaping benefits from the standards requires that they are implemented into the business in an integrated manner. ISO and provide the real basis for an effective and efficient QMS as a basis for its continual improvement. There is no evidence certification would increase the competitiveness of a company.
Certificates as indicators of quality have significantly hampered the basic utilization of the standards, and using ISO only as a checklist for certification has corrupted the whole core idea of the standards. Sound implementation of ISO amounts to natural, effective and efficient customer driven business management.
So where does that leave us? Maybe we need to have some open and honest dialogue at senior leadership levels about just how well organizations are using the ISO model. This requires more than mere reporting on internal audits at management reviews. It goes into an understanding of how the systems and subsystems of an organization are performing and whether they are helping achieve the organization's objectives.
It also requires the systemic use of quality tools at all levels to improve individual processes and identify systems that are not meeting internal and external customer expectations. There is a place for the complete wisdom that has been written on both the QMS standards and QI tools.
The need now is to get them to dance together and utilize the creativity that can come from the synergies of that pooling of resources. It's all there in print; doing it is what is hard. Jack Welch with John A. DALE K. Gordon earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from General Motors Institute now Kettering University in Flint, MI, and a master's degree in business administration from Butler University in Indianapolis.
View comments Comments FAQ. Search Advanced. Quality Management System vs. If a soldier pulled one bullet from a box, and it was defective, he had no way of knowing if the next one was — or the one after that or the whole box. Was he unlucky and pulled the only bad one out of a box of 20? Or was every bullet bad? Every second one? There was no time for this kind of question out on the battlefield, and the results often had serious consequences.
Gun and bullet manufacturers applied a basic quality inspection on percent of their production. This would mean checking the diameter of each and every bullet produced, which obviously added significant time and manpower — and therefore cost — to their manufacturing. Even without being an expert in bullets, we can imagine several different potential causes of defective bullets: Raw material — Wrong brass tube diameter, wall thickness or surface finish; Manufacturing — Incorrect machining, cutting, assembly or joining; Handling — Dropping, bending or clamping improperly; Conception — Poor design leading to a possible error in assembly; Analyzing these causes allows us to go back to before the errors were made and either remove or correct them.
Understanding Continuous Improvement While continuous improvement is related to quality control , it is important to realize continuous improvement has its own scope and application. The Continuous Improvement Cycle Named after its inventor, Walter Deming, the cycle is a visual representation of the steps to take for continuous improvement. The quadrants each represent a different action: P — Plan — Plan the improvement you want to make, based on a study, observation, and calculation.
D — Do — Do the actions, make the changes, make the modifications and update the procedure. C — Check — Check the results and implications of the improvement, using measurements and statistics when possible. A — Act — Act on your observations and make any modifications or further improvements necessary. How to Link Quality Control and Continuous Improvement It might seem as if quality control and continuous improvement were two independent concepts with minimal overlap.
This is the continuous improvement aspect. Use concrete examples when possible. While explaining a reduction in wait times, physical stock or marketing costs in terms o a percent may be useful with management, your employees might better understand and appreciate examples in terms of days, square feet and dollars. Clarify the goals of the changes — Explain the quality control tools and methodology you are implementing is to improve quality, not simply track it.
You want to make percent good bullets. Focus on training — Give your employees the opportunity to practice with the interface. Kanbanize is clear, ergonomic and easy to understand, but any new interface can seem intimidating at first. Take the time to show the users how they can easily communicate with each other, follow timelines, projects, and budgets. Let them experience firsthand how intuitive and productive quality control and continuous improvement can be. Start Today Does implementing new quality control and continuous improvement strategies sound like a lot of work?
Refine your checks and metrics , so you detect slight deviation from normal or, better yet, predict changes and discrepancies before they happen.
That way, you can avoid them completely. Continuous Improvement: Your business never takes a break, and neither can your improvements. Build continuous improvement into everything you do, so it is impossible to dissociate from how you work. Use tools such as the PDCA cycle to drive your continuous improvement. Please try again. I allow Kanbanize to contact me via email about their relevant content, products, services. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy.
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Strictly necessary cookies These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. Targeting cookies These cookies may be set through the website by our advertising partners. The business environment is continuously changing, and customers are increasingly demanding better products and services at lower costs. In order to adapt to these constant changes, organizations need to continuously improve, not only their products and services, but their processes.
Thus Quality Improvement is a systematic and continuous process aimed at minimizing costs, increasing the quality of product and services, and meeting and exceeding customer satisfaction.
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