Question

4.Quality Improvement 1.Quality Planning 3.Quality Control 2.Quality Assurance QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (QMS) Total Marks: 20] What are the differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control? (10 marks) i. ii. As a Quality Control Engineer, elaborate some control activities that you would carryout to ensure that the product and services being delivered meet the desired quality requirements. (10 marks)

Answer 1

i. Quality Control is checking the finished product against the specifications in the design of the product. Example: Checking for the diameter of a shaft whether it is under the given tolerances or not.

Quality Assurance is controlling the quality of the product or service in every stage of manufacturing/servicing, this ensures much higher. Example: Checking tool specifications from time to time in manufacturing a shaft. Even checking the material specifications has a good impact on quality.

ii. As a Quality Control Engineer, I would enforce the following control activities.

• Checking incoming material: Sample form every batch of the material should be checked against specifications, this will ensure that the product will adhere to its mechanical/chemical/physical properties.
• Inspecting the machines: Inspecting the machines regularly will reduce the number rejects because a machine in good condition will not produce defective products.
• Checking the quality control tools: Checking the tools which are used to check the quality of products is mandatory as any defect in them will cause major issues in the products.

Further checking every tools/machine/equipment that comes into the factory is a good practice so that other quality problems can be mitigated during the manufacturing process.

In the services industry as well as the manufacturing industry, proper training and continuous evaluation of the staff is mandatory for the product/service to be of high quality.