Since we are in to Quality Management
for construction projects, many a times we had to explain about the
above subject. So just thought of bringing it on record of some our
thoughts on the subject…
Short Answer:
Quality Control (QC): Comparing the results of Checking / Inspecting / Testing (CIT) process with the standards.
Ex: Ponding test for bore packing
Quality Assurance (QA): Taking all the necessary steps to get positive outcome from QC procedure.
Ex: Laying out the methodology, supervision & checking mechanism so that the Ponding test will be passed
Long Answer:
Purposefully I have
taken up the Ponding test for explaining QA/QC – main reason is many
people in our industry think that QA/QC process starts and ends with
site laboratory. But QA/QC process is actually involved in every part of
construction activities and not stopped only with incoming material
testing.
Quality Control:
There are various
outputs for every processes followed. These outputs should fulfill
certain criteria so that next process can be taken up. The process of
CIT (Checking/Inspecting/Testing) the outputs to see that these outputs
fulfill the required criteria is called as Quality Control.
Ex: Checking the
incoming materials for further processing, Inspecting shuttering system
for permitting concreting, checking the plastering finish and curing
time to permit painting process to start
Quality Assurance:
Scope of Quality
Assurance is very big. Quality Control is a very small part of Quality
Assurance. That is, deciding on which material to use, setting the
methods of checking and fixing requirement criteria, deciding the proper
methodology, implementing required processes to ensure the supervision,
etc., are part of Quality Assurance.
Ex: Setting up Method statements, Laboratory manuals, Checklists, reporting formats, implementing control mechanism, etc.,
The below picture is the representation of above discussion:
Generally in many
company’s evolution, Quality Control takes up the initial period since
many standards (BIS, Euro, ISO, ASTM) are readily available. Quality
Assurance will evolve out of it. After certain stage Quality Assurance
takes up the major role.
