Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) are two closely related—but distinct—parts of quality management. Understanding the difference is critical in manufacturing, healthcare, software, and regulated industries.
Quality Control (QC)
QC is product-focused It ensures the final output meets defined quality standards.
Key Characteristics
- Reactive – identifies defects after they occur
- Focuses on inspection and testing
- Performed during and after production
- Detects problems in products
QC Activities
- Incoming material inspection
- In-process inspection
- Final product testing
- Sampling and measurements
- Defect analysis
QC Tools
- Inspection checklists
- Control charts (SPC)
- Measuring instruments
- Visual & automated inspection systems
Quality Assurance (QA)
QA is process-focused It ensures the process used to make the product is capable of preventing defects.
Key Characteristics
- Proactive – prevents defects before they happen
- Focuses on process design and improvement
- Implemented before and during production
- Prevents problems in systems
QA Activities
- Process standardization
- SOP creation & control
- Quality planning
- Training & competency management
- Internal audits
- Risk management (FMEA)
QA Tools
- SOPs & work instructions
- Process flow diagrams
- FMEA
- Audit checklists
- CAPA systems
Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) are two essential components of quality management, but they serve different purposes:
Quality Assurance focuses on preventing defects by establishing processes and standards to ensure quality is built into the product from the beginning.
Quality Control, on the other hand, is about identifying and fixing defects in the final product through testing and inspection.
QA provides assurance that quality requirements will be met, while QC is a reactive process that checks for quality after production.
Both QA and QC are crucial for ensuring that products meet specifications and customer expectations, and they often work together to enhance overall quality.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance can be defined as “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.” The confidence provided by quality assurance is twofold—internally to management and externally to customers, government agencies, regulators, certifiers, and third parties. An alternate definition is “all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system that can be demonstrated to provide confidence that a product or service will fulfill requirements for quality.”
Quality Control
Quality control can be defined as “part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements.” While quality assurance relates to how a process is performed or how a product is made, quality control is more the inspection aspect of quality management. An alternate definition is “the operational techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality.”
