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Quality assurance in its broadest form can be defined as the set of actions that companies take in order to deliver goods and services to consumers with the expected level of quality.
Applying a quality assurance system creates trust and security to Business that your products will meet the appropriate conditions of expected quality. Consequently, for that purpose the quality standards apply under a system that allows the organization, direction and control within the entire process that takes place.
It can also be said that quality assurance is an audit that verifies that quality standards are met, that is, it is controlled that all the minimum requirements expected in the product.
Then, for companies to fulfill the assurance of quality, it is necessary that they follow a line of actions that previously they plan, are systematized and finally implemented as a set of rules that the company has to follow.
In any case, quality assurance requires that all processes be documented; both planning, determination of tasks and responsibilities, the recording of results and all Inspection mechanisms that are applied internally of each company.
How the quality assurance came about
Actually, quality assurance initially emerged as an important element in the production operations of the companies, during the 20s.
Since, it is considered as the initiators of this system to Walter Shewhart who was one of the first to make graphs of the control. Similarly to Harold Dodge who developed sampling techniques and to George Edwards with his contribution of economic analysis techniques to give troubleshoots.
So, these three characters formulated new inspection methods and theories focused on maintaining and making improvements to quality, they did this when they were transferred from the department of Western Electric company inspection towards Bell Telephone Laborotories; These contributions are considered the basis of what is known as assurance
of quality.
What quality assurance applies to
The Quality assurance is applied to achieve continuous improvement and with it the following benefits are obtained:
1. Avoid waste and reduce costs
On the one hand, preventing waste from occurring achieved because the insurance system allows productivity to improve of the company, because it allows you to focus better in achieving the objectives and in what customers expect about the product quality.
In addition, waste can be reduced or eliminated, because it is possible to identify those activities that only increase costs and they do not provide value to the process, in the same way this favors the achievement of efficiency.
2. Improvement in quality and customer satisfaction
Likewise, continuous improvement achieves improvements in the quality of products delivered to client, which gives the necessary confidence that the quality that is intended is being achieved and maintained, because everything is documented and certified.
Consequently, the company will achieve satisfied customers, which favors increasing their purchase frequency and recommending products to other people, generating higher sales revenue and of course higher profits.
Components of the quality assurance system
The assurance system Quality has the following components:
1. Administration Manual
Of course, a project management manual It includes important data that must be considered for use in the quality management plan of each company, that is why they are defined the specific procedures to achieve the objectives in a particular way for each organization.
2. Quality control measures
Of course, quality control measures allow establish the degree or level of quality achieved in each activity that is evaluated within the process. Can be used criteria such as yields in established deadlines, compliance with budget execution, frequency of occurrence of errors or defects within the process, among some that they could mention.
3. Reports on the performance achieved
Moreover, the performance reports reached they must be carried out periodically throughout the development of the different parts of the project, because this will allow monitoring how they are performing all activities and avoiding higher costs, if only inspect the final process.
Above all, you can assess whether they are being met times, based on the already elaborated schedules, the course of the process of delivery, technical performance and any activity that involves costs.
Development and implementation of quality assurance
To develop and implement a quality assurance system, it must be consider the following:
1. Convince of the leaders
Then, for an insurance system of the Quality succeeds it is important that business managers are are fully convinced of the benefits that will be obtained with your implementation to support and contribute to the adoption of the system.
2. Choose the system and communicate it at all levels
So, the assurance model must be chosen of quality that will be used by the company; but this information is due communicate to all the members of the group that make up the company, so that all commit to seek the achievement of the objectives
3. Choose a person who will be responsible for the implementation
Therefore, it is important to choose a person to assume the command as responsible person to carry out the whole process of project development and implementation and then this person will name a quality committee, which will be composed of suitable people who form the team of work that will be responsible for performing the tasks within the project execution.
So, this group of people take care of carry out the coordination from the beginning reviewing and approving the manual of quality, establishing the procedures, forming the work team and Performing periodic reviews until reaching the final result.
Finally, on some occasions it will be necessary to seek external advice to be able to carry out the implementation of the system as a whole.
In conclusion, we can affirm that the quality assurance system brings many benefits to companies, especially in reducing costs, in delivering products of expected quality and, above all, in getting their customers satisfied. Since, this system allows the documentation of processes to maintain the delivery of products and services with the expected quality, it should always be continuously reviewed and updated periodically, because continuous improvement should always be sought.