Quality assurance v Total quality management.

People take reponsibility for the quality of their work, eliminating need for inspection therefore Q is built in

REMEMBER THAT Q IS A CONTINUUM!!!!!!!

QA

QA is about describing, measuring and taking action and focuses on the procedure of compliance and product conformity to specification through production and operations management

Focus is in proactively preventing problems from arising,or if they do, attacking their causes. Building on more reactive approaches QA introduces a more comprehensive system which includes the purchasing of raw materials from suppliers who also have QA systems in place. Tools used are thos ewhich try to anticipate probs b4 they occur and take preventive measures. Costs of prevention are preferable to those of dealing with poorly finished products, even by redesigning processes or products.

COMPARISONS

However clear distinctions have been m ade between Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement as in the table below.

Detecting errors which caused poor outcome                        identifying opportunities for error

Reactive                                                        Pro-active

Punishes mistakes                                        Improves processes

Meeting thresholds                                        Continual improvement

Uses fear to work harder                                        Drives out fear

Departments isolated                                        Break down barriers

“Quality “ is undefinable                                        “Quality“ is exact

Organisation is first                                                 Customers are first

Customers are external only                                Customers external and internal

Differences between manufacturing and service

Manufacturing                                          Service

Manufacturing                                          Service

The product is tangible                                The service is intangible

Ownership is transferred at the time of purchase        Ownership is generally  not transferred

The product can be resold                                No resale is possible

The product can be demonstrated before purchase        The product does not exist before purchase

The product can be stored in inventory                The product cannot be stored

Production precedes consumption                        Production and consumption are simultaneous

Production and consumption can be spatially                Production and consumption must occur at the

separated                                        same location

The product can be transported        The product cannot be    

                                                                                       transported ( though producers can be )        

The seller produces                                The buyer takes part directly in the production

                                                process and can indeed perform part of the

                                                production

Indirect contact is possible between  the                 In most cases direct contact is needed

company and the customer

Business is organised by functions, with sales          Sales and production cannot be separated

and production separated and                         functionally