Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: What's the Difference?

How are you ensuring your business is providing quality products? It's an important question. Product quality and satisfaction is a huge factor in customer satisfaction.

Having set processes in place to check product or service quality is one way to address this issue. There are two main terms thrown around: quality control and quality assurance.

Confused about the difference between quality control vs quality assurance? You aren't alone. Keep reading below to finally understand the key differences.

Key Components of Quality Assurance

Before jumping straight into production, there should be clear protocols to follow. Standard procedures at every step of production decrease odds of a defect.

Quality assurance ensures every production step follows the established guidelines.

Examples of quality assurance include checklists, process documentation, or project audits.

Key Components of Quality Control

Quality control activities take place after a product has gone through quality assurance. The process works to verify products meets certain requirements and guidelines.

Clear processes help to identify any defects or bugs in a systematic way. If there are issues found, they become the focus for future development.

One of the most common quality control processes is inspection lines. Other examples include deliverable peer reviews and software testing.

Prevention versus Detection

One way to think of the differences is to think about prevention versus detection.

Quality assurance is a preventative measure. This means it prevents issues from ever reaching the public. It helps ensure quality expectations are always met.

Quality control acts more like a form of detection. Inspections and spot checks let businesses test if quality assurance processes work.

More and more, companies are able to use AI and other software to assist in finding issues with products. This can streamline and improve upon existing procedures.

Quality Control vs Quality Assurance: People Involved

Another difference between the two quality processes comes down to people involved. Quality assurance works to ensure all employees follow every standard and guideline.

This means every single person is responsible. They all should be very familiar with quality assurance expectations.

Consider regular team meetings to review processes and any recent problems. Ask employees for their ideas on how to ensure high-quality products every time.

With quality control, it is more common for one select team to conduct the actual testing. This team is more specialized and skilled to identify problems.

This helps avoid dangerous defects from hitting the market. Avoid this means companies won't face the scenario of dealing with a large recall.

Ready to Ensure Quality Products for Years to Come

Knowing the nuances of quality control vs quality assurance can get confusing. But with any luck, this guide has helped. Both are important for producing great products.

Making sure every product meets customer expectations is the way to success.

Want to discuss a quality problem in more detail? Please feel free to contact us and we would love to help!