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Faizan
Quality assurance (QA) management involves efficiently converting inputs--such as employee work, marketplace requirements, operating funds, raw materials and supplies--to outputs valued by customers, according to the American Society for Quality. Quality assurance techniques focus on the system used to create deliverables, whether they're tangible products or services, such as health care.
Understanding Customer Requirements
QA managers elicit, document and analyze the customer's quality expectations. Value received–what the customer expects to receive in exchange for payment--is the primary measure of quality used when developing a quality assurance process. Once these quality expectations are explicitly described and documented, the next step is creating a proactive strategy.
Human Factors
QA management techniques focus on human factors during the design and implementation of processes and systems. No commercial, service or industrial process is perfect, because human beings make mistakes. QA professionals study human operators and their limitations, and maximize productivity within these constraints.
Effective Supplier Management
Problems with suppliers can impact overall cost and supply chain performance. QA managers choose suppliers who prove they're effective at controlling output quality. They invest resources at the front end to develop detailed supplier-management processes and agreements. This avoids the ongoing cost of constantly monitoring suppliers and their products.
Sampling and Statistics
Testing every deliverable as it passes through production is usually impractical. QA managers set up a sampling strategy to examine a certain number of products as they exit each stage of the production process. In service industries, feedback forms, interviews and surveys can be used for sampling. Advanced statistical methodologies must be in place to analyze and solve quality problems identified by sampling. These methodologies include probability theory, charts for monitoring and control, product sampling, design of experiments and performance of regression analysis.
Lean Processes
QA managers practice lean production, identifying areas of waste, studying interrelationships among the system's components, and exercising leadership in managing processes and people.
Audits
QA managers schedule and sometimes design audits to ensure the processes used to create a deliverable meet the customer's exact quality requirements. Audit categories include conformance, systems, department, compliance, process and product, according to Robert Broughton of Quality Assurance Solutions. ISO 9000 quality audits are based on a set of international standards for managing quality, and are third-party audits performed by an independent, outside agency.
Prevention Investment
The American Society for Quality defines “cost of quality” as the cost of not creating a quality product or service. QA managers invest in activities designed to prevent poor quality in products or services, such as planning, supplier capability, employee education and training, inspections of purchased material and audits. Failure costs, such as scrapping or reworking a product, are much greater than prevention costs.
Understanding Customer Requirements
QA managers elicit, document and analyze the customer's quality expectations. Value received–what the customer expects to receive in exchange for payment--is the primary measure of quality used when developing a quality assurance process. Once these quality expectations are explicitly described and documented, the next step is creating a proactive strategy.
Human Factors
QA management techniques focus on human factors during the design and implementation of processes and systems. No commercial, service or industrial process is perfect, because human beings make mistakes. QA professionals study human operators and their limitations, and maximize productivity within these constraints.
Effective Supplier Management
Problems with suppliers can impact overall cost and supply chain performance. QA managers choose suppliers who prove they're effective at controlling output quality. They invest resources at the front end to develop detailed supplier-management processes and agreements. This avoids the ongoing cost of constantly monitoring suppliers and their products.
Sampling and Statistics
Testing every deliverable as it passes through production is usually impractical. QA managers set up a sampling strategy to examine a certain number of products as they exit each stage of the production process. In service industries, feedback forms, interviews and surveys can be used for sampling. Advanced statistical methodologies must be in place to analyze and solve quality problems identified by sampling. These methodologies include probability theory, charts for monitoring and control, product sampling, design of experiments and performance of regression analysis.
Lean Processes
QA managers practice lean production, identifying areas of waste, studying interrelationships among the system's components, and exercising leadership in managing processes and people.
Audits
QA managers schedule and sometimes design audits to ensure the processes used to create a deliverable meet the customer's exact quality requirements. Audit categories include conformance, systems, department, compliance, process and product, according to Robert Broughton of Quality Assurance Solutions. ISO 9000 quality audits are based on a set of international standards for managing quality, and are third-party audits performed by an independent, outside agency.
Prevention Investment
The American Society for Quality defines “cost of quality” as the cost of not creating a quality product or service. QA managers invest in activities designed to prevent poor quality in products or services, such as planning, supplier capability, employee education and training, inspections of purchased material and audits. Failure costs, such as scrapping or reworking a product, are much greater than prevention costs.
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