Explanation:
Quality assurance (QA) is an ongoing activity implemented in all processes involved in the production of any good or service. The goal of QA is to achieve the highest quality level possible. The term is often confused with quality control, which is a gap analysis that evaluates expected final output quality vs. actual quality. Quality assurance deals with each step of the process to identify possible deviations in each stage.Since each stage has its own output the final result will be enhanced if each stage’s output is enhanced. Companies can optimize their QA processes by following the ISO 9000 guidelines. These are principles developed by the International Organization for Standardization that assist companies to redesign its processes to increase the quality of its outputs. This is not only applicable to manufacturing processes, it also applies to internal administrative processes, since they also produce outputs that are used by other departments and they have an indirect impact on the overall quality of the company’s products or services.In a nutshell:
- Quality assurance encompasses the processes and procedures that systematically monitor different aspects of a service or facility.
- Through audits and other forms of assessment, quality assurance efforts detect and correct problems or variances that fall outside established standards or requirements.
- In other words, quality assurance ensures a high level of quality during the development of products or services.