here is a bit of discussion on the subject based on ISO 9001 quality standards
http://www.qualitygurus.com/download/QM001DifferenceBetweenQualityAssuranceAndQualityControl.pdf
Quality assurance is a set of activities intended to establish confidence that quality requirements will be met. QA is one part of quality management.
Quality control is a set of activities intended to ensure that quality requirements are actually being met. Quality control is one part of quality management.
QC is part of QA that deals mainly with six ítems: sampling, specifications, assays, documentation, organization and authorization.
QA is the set of activities you perform in order to ensure the quality of your products.
Quality Assurance is a general term describing the commitment of a laboratory for production of reliable results and involves the implementation at all times of a standardized set of activities usually determined by a legal or a guidance document.
Quality control is one of these activities, performed daily or weekly by members of the laboratory staff for VERIFICATION that the quality system applied is effective
It is true that “Quality assurance” and “quality control” are often used interchangeably, although they have different meanings.
• Quality Assurance corresponds to planned activities implemented in a quality system to ensure that quality requirements WILL BE fulfilled – Focus on PREVENTION.
• Quality Control corresponds to planned activities implemented in a quality system to check if quality requirements ARE fulfilled – Focus on CONTROL
QA = Evaluation for lot release/corrective and preventative action.
QC = Monitoring in process controls to ensure the product meets QA specifications.
The difference between QC and QA is fundamental, because:
QA refers to building customer confidence and may include: obtaining a certificate of quality management system, presenting parts for the approval (PPAP), measurement systems analysis (MSA),..... presentation of references other customers...
QC refers to building quality of product and may include: Customer voice recognition, quality function deployment (QFD), designing for quality and reliability (DFQ&R), Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) , validation of product prototype....
here is a joking definition of QA vs. QC:
QC: this product is OK, this product is OK... hey! this product is BAD! go ahead... this product is OK, this product is OK...
QA: ...mm... how many bad products? why bad products? what to do to avoid bad products? etc.
QA: Assuring that the product will be within the specification - It is a Process certification tool - External to system.
QC:Verifying and certifying each product and filtering out the product which is not within the specification - It is Product certification system - Internal to organisation.
Quality control is a system of maintaining standards in manufactured products by testing a sample of the output against the specification, while quality assurance is the maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.
Testing a sample of the output against the specification is rather a quality inspection. Quality Control is a complex process whose goal is to obtain a product that meets customer requirements. This process includes activities at the 3 stages: designing, development and implementation of serial production. For example, in automotive industry this process named APQP strategy.
This is the way I have looked at it: QC is defined as those techniques or activities that acheive, sustain, or improve the quality of a product or service (Besterfield 1979). QA refers to those components of a system that verify that hte QC system is working.
Dear, In the field of construction, all of the construction activities are subjected to the quality control to check its fulfillment to the contract specification. each construction material (raw and mixed) will practice the quality control testing. data will be large and documented. on the other hand, the quality assurance is a check process on the quality control, it is usually conducted by another testing team, it uses aggregate sampling system, the data will be limited, it gives an idea on how stringent the quality control was. both QC and QA are adopted in the construction project to ensure sticking to the specifications.
QC dept test the product / material. QA dept certify the test for approval / rejection.
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