Quality Management System (QMS) vs. Quality Control (QC) vs. Quality Assurance (QA)

[David McGan]

In the interest of "Continuous Improvement", I'm considering the potential of breaking our formal Quality effort into two focused areas -- QUALITY SYSTEMS, which focuses primarily on implementation and maintenance of systems which support the overall quality improvement effort, and QUALITY CONTROL, which focuses a team on the actual on-the-floor activity defined by the System. I'd invite any insights as to what others have experienced or ideas which I might consider in this effort.

[Marc]

How does Quality Assurance play into your scheme?

Our system has a seperate QC and QA manager. The QC Manager/dept is responsible for acceptance and rejection of product. In ISO/QS terms section 4.10. While QA is responsible for the entire system, and has direct authority for Document and data control, internal audit system, and management review.

I do not think it is necessary to keep the two seperate in a small company.

[Marc]

I agree with you Christian. I'm just ferreting out distinctions.

[David McGan]

I never really looked at there being a major difference between "Quality Assurance" and "Quality Control." I suppose that what I'm considering might be construed as dividing up between a Quality System that systems are in place to "Assure" quality and one that "Controls" the process so that the ouput is quality product. In most cases, it seems that many companies use the terms interchangeably. In any event, I value the continued input of this forum to help me ferret out the best direction for our company.

[David McGan]

Christian, thanks for your input. You've raised my curiosity: in your company, you describe two separate departments, which is what I'm considering. Could you elaborate a little on what type of interaction the two departments have -- how are the areas of responsibility defined and what are they? What type of working relationship is there between the two department managers? Do both managers report to Top Management?

sorry for the belated response, both managers report to top management, (although in many cases I have seen QC report to QA, since QC deals with a subset of the entire QA system. The two managers have the same relationship that exists between production and QA. In fact in our company I believe the title QA manager will cease to exist, and modern quality journals see this as a trend for the future. Is it really accurate to call someone with responsibility for many systems a "quality" manager? The quality manager in our comapny is someone who is versed in everything from HR to purchasing, contract review to final inspection and everything in between. Sounds more like a CEO, plant manager, or General manager eh? Those are the skills the modern "Quality Manager" will need. The QC manager on the other hand deals only with acceptance or rejection of product (in process and final). He is responsible for testing for the physical property characteristics that the customer requires.

Our company is organized in exactly this way. There is a "Manager of Quality Engineering" and a "Manager of Quality Systems". The QE Mngr has quality engineers working for them that are assigned to specific teams. The QS Mngr has internal auditors. As QS9000 compliance becomes reality, the need to reorganize in this fashion makes sense due to the increased resources needed to maintain the QS9000 monster. The two Quality Mngrs both report equally to top management and give monthly reviews (using policy deployment)on PPM (QE mngr) and internal audit issues/findings (QS Mngr).