Quality Management is a rigorous methodology employed by a manufacturing company to ensure that the quality of its products is consistent. Two essential components of quality management are Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC), which are often used interchangeably, even though there are distinct differences between the two.
Quality assurance consists of that ‘part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.’ The confidence provided by quality assurance is twofold—internally to management and externally to customers, government agencies, regulators, certifiers and third parties. Quality control is that ‘part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements.’ While quality assurance relates to how a process is performed or how a product is made, quality control is more the inspection aspect of quality management.”
Best practices in quality management focus on the prevention of mistakes and/or defects during the manufacturing process. Adherence to its principles helps to streamline production and ensure the company’s exacting standards are met throughout the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery processes. Quality assurance also helps to safeguard the quality of all raw materials, components, assemblies, and finished products and to prevent any issues arising as a result of defective third-party components.
Typically, those working in a manufacturing quality assurance team function as overseers of critical systems such as document control, process control, calibration, training, and corrective action, and are also tasked with conducting audits, as necessary, to ensure compliance with ISO 9000 or TS16949 standards.
The benefits of quality assurance are:
According to ISO 9000, quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills the need. That means a variety of KPI have to be reached simultaneously, such as:
Key Manufacturing assurance best practices to consider: