By Ranjan K Baruah
In today’s section of career we are focusing on quality assurance and how it can be a career for our students. This is relatively a new term for many but as people are concerned about quality, so, it is bringing more opportunity for young people in India. 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”.
We are all concerned about quality whether it is food or any other service, we need quality everywhere. It is important for each and every one of us. A student is concerned about quality education while a business person is concerned about quality business and consumer looks for quality services and products. In business, engineering, and manufacturing, quality has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something; it’s also defined as being suitable for its intended purpose (fitness for purpose) while satisfying customer expectations. Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly.
There are many aspects of quality in a business context, though primary is the idea the business produces something, whether it be a physical good or a particular service. These goods and/or services and how they are produced involve many types of processes, procedures, equipment, personnel, and investments, which all fall under the quality umbrella. Key aspects of quality and how it’s diffused throughout the business are rooted in the concept of quality management. The main terms associated with quality are as follows: Quality Planning – Quality planning is implemented as a means of “developing the products, systems, and processes needed to meet or exceed customer expectations. This includes defining who the customers are, determining their needs, and developing the tools (systems, processes, etc.) needed to meet those needs.
Quality Assurance – Quality assurance is implemented as a means of providing enough confidence that business requirement and goals (as outlined in quality planning) for a product and/or service will be fulfilled. This error prevention is done through systematic measurement, comparison with a standard, and monitoring of processes. Quality Control – Quality control is implemented as a means of fulfilling quality requirements, reviewing all factors involved in production. The business confirms that the good or service produced meets organizational goals, often using tools such as operational auditing and inspection. QC is focused on process output.
Quality Improvement – Quality improvement is implemented as a means of providing mechanisms for the evaluation and improvement of processes, etc. in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. This may be done with noticeably significant changes or incrementally via continual improvement. (To be continued)
Italian Government Scholarships: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) offers grants in favour of foreign citizens not residing in Italy for the academic year 2018-19 in order to foster international cultural, scientific and technological cooperation, to promote Italian language and culture and to support Italy’s economic system in the world. Grants are offered to pursue study, training, and/or research programs at Italian Higher Education Institutes, both public and legally recognized. Aspirants may apply on or before 30th April.