How to establish effective Quality Assurance

Quality assurance provides evidence to a business that it is producing a great product. It involves several aspects, such as establishing an understanding of standards and requirements that must be met together with an assessment of the methods, approach and results achieved pertaining to quality in an organization. Quality Assurance, when operated successfully, can help … Read more

Information Technology Quality Assurance

Information Technology Quality Assurance is the process of monitoring the quality of a product (often software) as it is being developed or maintained.   Quality Assurance generally encompasses the entire development process, including standards compliance; requirement, design and code reviews; software inspections; testing; and management processes such as configuration management and process improvement. In this Information … Read more

Quality Assurance Reporting Structure

A typical quality assurance reporting structure varies on several factors, including the company’s size, applicable regulatory requirements and general organizational structure (i.e. team-based or hierarchical). Some roles may be specific when assessing a quality assurance reporting structure; for example, dependent on the industry. However, many roles are functionally driven and are therefore common for example: … Read more

What is Quality Leadership

Quality Leadership describes the ability of an entity (which could be a person, organization or other) to provide “leadership” in the attainment of quality-related benefits such as excellence, compliance, effectivity etc. As with traditional leadership, Quality Leadership includes a variety of topics; these include Strategy Goal Setting Planning Employee development. While there are similarities, Quality … Read more

Empowered Teams

An empowered team is a self-sufficient (often cross-functional) group of employees working autonomously within a business with responsibility for a specific goal(s). Empowered teams differ from standard teams by several factors They have corporate authority to enact their own decisions They are outcome focussed (rather than product focussed) They have high levels of trust and … Read more

Layered Process Audits

Layered process audits (abbreviated to LPA) focus on verifying standards and processes within an organization. These audits focus on verification during the production process and, as such, are an alternative to carrying out audits on finished goods. They have several attributes that include: They occur regularly They often occur at high volume (especially where there … Read more

Quality in Manufacturing

Quality in Manufacturing is a set of tools, methods and processes which are predominantly geared towards achieving goals such as meeting customer requirements, reducing defects, improving right first time and minimising waste (such as scrap).    While specifications and requirements are flowed down from the customer, a business requires policies, processes, and systems to meet … Read more

Cost of poor quality

Cost of poor quality relates to a range of costs incurred by an organization as a result of managing internal and external quality-related tasks and issues. These costs can vary between organizations and industries depending on a range of factors. Organizations that fail to capture and understand these costs lack an important indicator that describes … Read more

What is a Quality Engineer?

In the constant push for a quality product and efficient and effective processes, ongoing quality checks and product validation is a must. These steps ensure that your organization maintains both high quality and consistent output. One of the key facilitators of this is the Quality Engineer. In today’s article, we’ll be looking at the role … Read more

Non Conformance report

In this article, we’ll take a look at what a Non Conformance Report is, what it’s used for, an example report and how the humble NCR can actually help your organization. We’ll also take a look at its good points and some things to watch out for when your setting up your NCR process. In … Read more