Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are essential processes in ensuring product and service quality. QA is a proactive approach focusing on preventing defects, while QC is a reactive process that checks products against quality criteria after manufacturing. Both QA and QC are interdependent, with QA relying on QC feedback to improve processes and ensure compliance with customer requirements.

1. Quality Assurance vs Quality
Control

2. Quality is an important factor when it comes to any product or
services. quality is defined in a business context:
Software functional quality reflects how well it complies with or
conforms to a given design, based on functional requirements or
specifications.

3. Quality assurance (QA) is a way of preventing mistakes or defects
in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering
solutions or services to customers; which ISO 9000 defines as
"part of quality management focused on providing confidence
that quality requirements will be fulfilled".

4. Quality control (QC) is a procedure or set of procedures intended
to ensure that a manufactured product or performed service
adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the
requirements of the client or customer. QC is similar to, but not
identical with, quality assurance (QA).

5. Approach
Quality assurance is based on process approach.
Quality monitoring and its assurance ensure that the processes
and systems are developed and adhered in such a way that the
deliverables are of good quality.
This process is meant to produce defect-free goods or services
which means being right the first time with no or minimum
rework.

6. Whereas
Quality control is product-based approach. It checks whether the
deliverables satisfy the quality requirements as well as the
specifications of the customers or not.
Depending upon the results, suitable corrective action is taken by
quality control personals.

7. Sequence of operation
Quality assurance is done before starting a project.
During assurance of quality or monitoring process, the
requirements of the customers are defined.
Based on those requirements, the processes and systems are
established and documented.
All this is done to ensure that the requirements of the customers
are met stringently.
So, assurance of quality is a proactive or preventive process to
avoid defects

8. Whereas
Quality control begins once the product has been
manufactured.
After manufacturing the product, the quality control process
begins.
Based on the customer requirements and standards developed
during the quality guarantee process, the quality control
personal check whether the manufactured product meets all
those requirements or not.
Quality control is a corrective process to identify the defects in
order to correct them.

9. Activities
Most activities falling under the purview of quality assurance are
performed by managers, customers, and third party auditors.
These activities include:
O Process documentation
O Establishing standards
O Developing checklists
O Conducting internal audits
O Conducting external audits
O Failure mode effect analysis

10. Whereas
Engineers, inspectors, and supervisors on the shop floor perform
quality control activities. Their activities include
O Performing and receiving inspection
O Final inspection
O In-process inspection

11. Interdependence
Both, Quality control and assurance
of Quality are largely interdependent.
The Quality guarantee department
relies mostly on the feedback
provided by the quality control
department.

12. Example
If there are recurrent problem with the quality of the products,
then the quality control department provides feedback to the
quality monitoring and assurance personnel that there is a
problem in the process or system that is causing product quality
problems. Then the assurance of quality department determines
the root cause of the problem and then brings changes to the
process to ensure that there are no quality issues in future.
Similarly, the quality control department follows the guidelines
and standards established by assurance of quality department to
check whether deliverables meet the quality requirements or
not. Hence, both these departments are essential to maintain
good quality of the deliverables.

13. Thank You