Quality Assurance (QA) vs Quality Control (QC): 5 Differences

Importance of Quality in Business

Businesses should stay on top of the game and keep up with their competitors. The best thing that we should do to become great is do a good job by delivering premium products and services. Quality management systems convey the information and standards for carrying on things as they should be. Also, they provide the best of the cost efficiency and allow optimal resource utilization.

Higher Profitability

High-quality services consistently outperform the industry; as researchers found out, these services have a positive correlation with bigger profitability. Unlike low quality, which produces a decline in market share in its return on investment (ROI), high quality increases ROI to any percentage of this market share. A lower volume of errors can significantly reduce the expenses related to failures. Improvements in performance, features, and other good quality dimensions merge to expand the sales volume and enlarge the market shares.

Consistent Product And Increased Efficiency

Production quality assurance is an extremely important factor in companies creating high-quality and reliable products with long durability and good performance. These elements are the differentiating factors among other individuals of the same industry.

Better Customer Satisfaction

The marketplace is full of products and services these days. Consumers pressure companies to give them the best experience. They have thousands of brands to choose from and can access millions of stores due to the advances in technology. If the brand does not meet the customers' expectations through the value offered, the revenue will be at stake, too.

Risk Reduction and Protection of Brand

The selling process has not finished, and customers may face many problems while using your products. Recalls can cause long-term financial losses and can also influence the quality of a customer's experience. It may also damage your brand and reputation, thus leading to a negative outcome.

Lower Costs

Statistics say that a better quality management system and the quality you provide are the formula for securing numerous clients and, hence, more revenues for the company. This strategy comes after recovering a good ranking, which is a result of displaying the best goods. Customers will have referrals for your business and buy the same product or a different item from your business.

Key Components of Quality Assurance

The four main components of quality assurance include: 

Quality Control Planning

The very first step of quality management is planning. You need to take some time and think about what your goal is and where you want to see yourself in the future. In this planning stage, you will want to consider:

• Determining the aspirations and goals of your target audience in the event that they need them.
• What is your company's definition of success?
• Where do legal norms or rules exist, and which ones should be made compulsory?
• Who will occupy leadership roles and executive supervisory activities (e.g., Leadership, testing, etc.)?
• When performance measurement is carried out, updates on the progress will also be reviewed.

Quality Control

Quality control is a practice when you really put all ideas you formed during the planning stages on the line to determine whether they can be reached. You have to understand that the requirements you have established must be met, and you cannot miss any mistakes or errors that would require changing them. Therefore, ensuring the quality of everything in the product is crucial, including which materials are used and the process of assembling it.

Quality Assurance

While quality control analyzes products/services in the field, quality assurance follows after it reviews delivery processes or the quality management production of goods. When reviewing your product or service during this stage of QC management, you will want to follow these steps:

• Check to ensure that the product's specifications, which were previously discussed during the quality planning and control phase, have not changed.
• Measure how effective your pre-determined processes are. Also, confirm that all compliance needs are being met.
• Mark the areas where you managed to cope and the ones that you didn't manage.
• Identify areas where there is an opportunity for a smoother process.

Quality Improvement

After completing the quality control process, you need to review your findings and devise a way to improve your methods. Quality control management is of no use if you are not willing to make changes when necessary. 

The Role of QA in Continuous Improvement

There are many advantages that effective Quality Assessment and Testing bring to continuous improvement. Companies can reduce the probability of such defects by employing this tool to detect and resolve issues in the developmental phase. It boosts productivity, minimizes costs, and ensures the highest quality of customer attention. A continuous improvement strategy through the development process can be changing and adjusting to a business's evolving requirements, customer opinions, and market requirements. Some benefits include: 

• Early identification of errors
• Lower cost
• Improved customer satisfaction

How Does the QC Process Work?

Quality control processes and their main purpose is compliance with a particular level of quality and customer satisfaction. This typically involves several steps:

• Planning: Identifying the standards and developing the necessary tools to maintain them.
• Quality Assurance (QA): Implementing practices to prevent failures, such as detailed documents, employee training, and process reviews to boost quality control.
• Quality Control (QC): Organize and check the manufacturing process with a test to find the defects and the value deviation from the standard.
• Corrective Action: Preventing the same problems from occurring by reviewing, implementing modifications to processes, or product recalling if any problems are identified by QC.
• Continuous Improvement: Deriving and analyzing data from the QC activities to identify existing trends/opportunities and improve overall quality and efficiency.

Top Tools and Technologies in Quality Control

As far as the techniques of quality management are concerned, manufacturing companies use techniques like Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean production, and Six Sigma. Organizations can implement one or any combination of these strategies, which could be based on their unique needs. 

The seven tools used for the Quality Control process are: 

• Cause and Effect Diagram
• Check Sheet
• Control Chart
• Histogram
• Pareto Chart
• Scatter Diagram 
• Stratification

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Complementary Relationship Between QA and QC

QA vs QC creates a quality dimension. The goal of QA is to remove the defects from the production cycle using process improvements, training, and re-documentation that will eventually be less dependent on QC actions. While QA is all about testing the products at the end of the production cycle to identify errors and defects, QC concerns itself with inspecting and testing products at every stage of production until they meet the standards and deviations are corrected. 

Joint efforts of QA positions involve the development of procedures that reduce the probability of errors and detect the rest of the errors. QC exercises the same procedures to verify their implementation. This relationship delivers a holistic approach to quality management, thereby delivering customer satisfaction and minimal errors. The topic of quality control vs quality assurance is an important aspect to consider and utilize the full potential of the concepts. 

5 Key Differences Between QA vs QC

QA vs QC is an emerging topic that requires detailed differentiation. The difference between QA and QC is as follows: 

Aspect	Quality Assurance (QA)	Quality Control (QC)
Focus	Preventing defects before they occur	Detecting defects after they occur
Objective	Process-oriented	Product-oriented
Responsibility	Entire organization. Involves planning and implementation of processes	Inspection and testing teams. Involves checking products or services
Timing	Implemented throughout the entire production process	Implemented during or after production
Goal	Establishing procedures to ensure quality standards are met consistently	Verifying that products meet specified standards

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The Future of QA and QC

The future of QA and QC will likely be shaped by technological progress, which depends on computers, AI and machine learning, and automation technology. These technologies will deliver optimized methods, precise predictive analytics to prevent defection and instant viewing of quality metrics. For those looking to enhance their Quality Management skills and Six Sigma principles, the Six Sigma Expert program by Simplilearn is the preferred opportunity.

FAQs

1. Which job is better, QC or QA?

Both QA and QC are essential components of ensuring product quality. The choice between them depends on individual preferences, skill sets, and career goals. 

2. Can QA and QC coexist in a lean or agile environment?

Yes, QA and QC can coexist in lean or agile environments. They are often integrated into these methodologies to ensure continuous improvement and quality throughout the development process.

3. What are some common misconceptions about QA and QC?

• One common misconception is that QA and QC are interchangeable terms but have distinct roles and objectives.
• Another misconception is that QA is solely responsible for quality, while QC is solely responsible for finding defects. In reality, both functions contribute to overall quality management.