Quality Assurance vs Quality Control: What’s the Differences?

With the market getting highly competitive, maintaining the quality of products becomes crucial for a business. The customer is never going to compromise with the quality, so if you wish to retain them, you need to up the quality game. Organizations make a lot of effort to ensure that their end product is of premium quality and stands tall on the customer expectations. Quality assurance and quality control are two methodologies that businesses adopt to ensure quality during the manufacturing process and check the end product thoroughly, making sure it meets the expected quality standards.  

This article delves into this concept in detail, giving you detailed information about quality assurance vs quality control. By the end of it, you will know which process you should incorporate into your manufacturing process. 

What is Quality Assurance?  

Quality assurance is a detailed process of maintaining and developing the quality of goods and services through efficient production management. It includes quality planning, error identification, and control to eliminate defects at the early stages of system development. QA is dynamic and its primary objective is to improve efficiency by preventing potential problems. The fundamental processes that one carries out under QA are process audits, standard operating procedures, and adherence to the best practices. QA makes it possible for organizations to be consistent and gain the trust of customers by improving their product performance. 

What is Quality Control?  

Quality control is the process of checking and evaluating the finished products to see whether they meet certain quality standards. QC is a reactive approach focused on identifying and correcting the failings of the output. It covers specific methods like product sampling, quality inspections, or performance-related tests. While QA is more process-oriented, QC can be defined as an activity that concentrates on the results of the processes. Thus, problems found in the final product are detected by QC, which allows for preserving consumers’ trust and serving the company’s interest. 

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control: Table of Differences   

The table below gives you a brief about QA vs QC based on multiple factors.  

Parameter	Quality Assurance	Quality Control
Focus	Improving the Manufacturing Process	Inspecting the process for errors
Process Nature	Proactive	Reactive
Goal	Eliminate Errors	Identify & Fix Defects
Methods	Audits, and Process Reviews	Sampling and testing
Responsibility	QA team	Production Team

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Detailed Differences   

Let us discuss the parameters in detail to better understand the difference between quality control and quality assurance.  

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Focus 

Quality Assurance is focused on bringing efficiency into the manufacturing process, ensuring that the end product meets the quality standards. The idea is to develop a system that completely eliminates the chances of flaws in the end product. The quality assurance expert might develop the SOPs (standard operating procedures) that the production team will follow for all the processes, ensuring premium quality results. 

Quality Control focuses on identifying the errors in the final product and building strategies to rectify them before the product is available for the user. In this process, the concerned team performs quality tests on the product sample, checking the accuracy and whether it meets the set standards. The discrepancies are then noted and rectified.  

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Process Nature 

QA is a proactive process in nature. It means the action is taken before the problem arrives. The aim is to work on developing a model that prevents flaws from coming into the product. It is done by setting up quality benchmarks and performing efficient predictive analysis.  

Quality Control is reactive in nature. It means the action is taken after the error is identified. Once the product is created, it goes through various quality checks in which the flaw (if there is any) gets identified. The team then works on diminishing the error until the end product meets the expectations.  

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Goal 

The ultimate goal of quality assurance is to ensure eliminating that errors from occurring well before the end product is released. The QA process is carried out throughout the production, from planning to execution, significantly reducing the chances of defects.  

The goal of quality control is to take corrective measures. Once the product is ready, the concerned team evaluates it on set parameters to see if it is ready to go to the end user or if there are any defects that should be addressed before.  

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Methods 

When you explore what is quality assurance vs quality control, the methods that both processes use are a primary parameter of difference.  

Quality assurance uses the process-focused methodologies. Some of them are: 

• Process optimization 
• Statistical process control 
• ISO certifications  
• Setting up a framework to standardize practices. 

Quality control relies on product-focused methodologies. Some of them are:  

• Visual examinations to check physical defects. 
• Automation testing tools and software.  
• Six Sigma tools for defect detection.  

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: Responsibility 

At the larger scale, quality assurance is the responsibility of the QA team. However, as it is a collaborative process, other teams are also involved. For example, the design and production team are also involved if the process needs any change.  

Quality control is the responsibility of the QC team, including testers or the quality inspectors. It is more of a localized process confined only to the quality control team. They can use various evaluation criteria, customer feedback, and more to detect errors.  

Future of QA and QC  

The future of QA and QC is tied to technological evolution and growing customer demands. Currently, a significant shift can be seen towards Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), all to get optimum quality that impresses the customer. If you research a bit, you will find that the QA activities are slowly implementing predictive models to identify defects right from the production line. On the other hand, QC is implementing technologies for example image recognition and IoT sensors in order to improve the efficiency of the inspections made.  

The flexibility that is accorded to real-time analytics signifies that organizations can keep track of all quality indicators in real-time. Moreover, sustainability is introduced in the conceptualization of quality practices, making organizations develop environmentally sustainable activities. Thus, QA and QC will always play a significant role in industrial development as the main guarantors of high innovations and customer satisfaction as well as operational efficiency.  

Which Should I Choose between Quality Assurance vs Quality Control?  

This choice depends on multiple factors, including the organizational objectives and goals. You should have a fair understanding of the concepts and know the diff between quality assurance and quality control to be able to decide which one would be apt for your business.  

If your primary goal is to prevent defects and build a set framework for the production process, you should opt for quality assurance. However, if you wish to set up a system where your end product gets thoroughly checked for any errors, you can opt for quality control. However, to get the best results, it is advisable to know how quality assurance differs from quality control. But opt for both QC and QA.  

Utilize QA to frame an effective quality procedure that helps diminish errors, and opt for QC to evaluate the end product and identify any errors that might have occurred. Combining the two makes a lot of senses since organizations get a holistic approach to managing quality and creating trust and satisfaction among stakeholders.  

Conclusion  

The quality control process goes hand in hand with the Quality Assurance process as they both belong to the same quality management system. While the former addresses the issues of process standards, the latter addresses a product’s compliance with certain quality requirements. Two are strategic to the delivery of operational effectiveness and meeting customers’ needs and expectations. 

When employees understand each other with the strengths of one team member being countered by the weakness of another, organizations can bring products and services to the market that has little or no competition. It is prudent to integrate QA and QC innovations, and this helps businesses offer the highest quality in all sectors.