In developing products and services, quality assurance is any systematic process of checking to
see whether a product or service being developed is meeting specified requirements. Many companies
have a separate department devoted to quality assurance. A quality assurance system is said to
increase customer confidence and a company's credibility, to improve work processes and efficiency,
and to enable a company to better compete with others. Quality assurance was initially introduced
in World War II when munitions were inspected and tested for defects after they were made. Today's
quality assurance systems emphasize catching defects before they get into the final product.
ISO
9000 is an international standard that many companies use to ensure that their quality
assurance system is in place and effective. Conformance to ISO 9000 is said to guarantee that a
company delivers quality products and services. To follow ISO 9000, a company's management team
decides quality assurance policies and objectives. Next, the company or an external consultant
formally writes down the company's policies and requirements and how the staff can implement the
quality assurance system. Once this guideline is in place and the quality assurance procedures are
implemented, an outside assessor examines the company's quality assurance system to make sure it
complies with ISO 9000. A detailed report describes the parts of the standard the company missed,
and the company agrees to correct any problems within a specific time. Once the problems are
corrected, the company is certified as in conformance with the standard.
Contributor(s): J. Alexander
This was last updated in February 2007
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