Quality Assurance and Quality Control are the part of the quality system. They controls a product quality on the manufacturing line. Sometimes QA and QC are used interchangeably, but they are different. This article covers the difference between quality assurance vs quality control.
We suggest you also read the article on manufacturing line balancing.
To understand the difference between QA and QC, firstly we will understand what is quality assurance and what is quality control?
What is Quality Assurance?
Quality Assurance or QA defines a set of planned and systematic activities in a quality system to ensure manufactured product quality.
QA prevents manufacturing defects and ensures manufactured products are as per acceptance criteria by finding flaws in the system.
In other words, Quality Assurance gives confidence in the manufactured part quality. QA activities occur before the quality control.
What is Quality Control?
Quality control or QC in a quality system prevents defects in manufactured products. Quality control ensures product inspection, manufacturing processes, methods, and techniques.
QC activities are done after the QA to monitor or inspect the implemented processes to ensure the quality of manufactured products.
Quality Assurance vs Quality Control
Quality Control is a part of quality assurance, and they comes under the umbrella of a Quality system. Sometimes these two words are used interchangeably. But they are different in the way they control product quality.
Here is the list of differences between quality assurance and quality control.
| S.No. | Quality Assurance | Quality Control |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Defines a set of planned and systematic activities in the quality system to ensure the quality of manufactured products. | They are used in a quality system to prevent the defects in a manufactured product. |
| 2. | QA team defines processes for creating high-quality products. | QC team do verification of processes and inspection of products after manufacturing. |
| 3. | Process Orientated | Product Orientated. |
| 4. | Avoid the defects. | Identify and fix the defects. |
| 5. | Process Orientated | Product Orientated. |
| 6. | Proactive Measure : Focus is on Prevention | Reactive measures : Focus is on detection |
| 7. | It involves documentation, audits, supplier management, training and change control activities. | It involves batch inspection, product sampling, validation testing etc activities. |
| 8. | This activity is done before Quality control. | QC is done before Quality Assurance. |
| 9. | QA focus on manufacturing processes | Focus on implementation on processes and inspection. |
We will keep adding more information on the difference between quality assurance vs quality control. Please add your suggestions, comments or, questions on Quality assurance vs quality control in the comment box. We suggest you also read this article on Lean manufacturing.
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