Quality Control Planning 

The first step of quality management is planning. You need to take the time to identify your goals and what you want your baseline to be. You should determine what your quality standards are, the requirements necessary to meet these standards, and what procedures will be used to check that these criteria are being met. In this planning stage, you will want to consider:

• What your stakeholder’s expectations and priorities are, if applicable
• What your company’s definition of success is
• What legal standards or requirements are in place that must be abided by
• Who will handle each role in the quality management process (supervision, testing, etc.)
• How often processes will be evaluated for improvement

Quality Control

Once you have a plan in place, quality control comes into play. This is the process of physically inspecting and testing what you laid out in the planning stage to make sure it is obtainable. You need to confirm that all the standards you have put into place are met, and you need to identify any mishaps or errors that need to be corrected. The sooner you can catch these errors, the better. As such, you should be paying attention to all aspects of the product, including both the materials used and the process of putting them together.

Once the inspection data has been collected, it should be displayed in a way that makes it easy to analyze. You can create histograms, run charts, or cause and effect displays, and then easily share them through your document management software to make sure everyone has access to them.

Quality Assurance 

While quality control involves inspecting the actual products or services in the field, quality assurance is reviewing the delivery process of services or the quality management manufacturing of goods. By inspecting your goods or services at the source, you can catch mistakes before they reach the customer. You can also fine tune your processes to prevent errors in the future. When reviewing your product or service during this stage of quality control management, you will want to follow these steps:

• Confirm that everything is operating as it was agreed upon during the quality planning stage
• Measure how effective your pre-determined processes are and confirm that all compliance needs are being met
• Take note of any lessons learned
• Identify areas where there is an opportunity for a smoother process

To be effective, quality assurance must be completed regularly through independent audits. For the best results, have the audit completed by a third-party that is not financially or emotionally invested in the outcome.

Quality Improvement 

Finally, after completing the quality control process, you need to thoroughly review your findings and come up with a way to improve your methods going forward. Quality control management is fruitless if you are not willing to make changes when they are necessary. The desire for continual improvement is the goal for every successful company. So, gather all your data, re-evaluate both the processes and the product—always keeping compliance in mind—and then begin the quality control management process again. With each cycle, you will end up with a better product, happier customers, and more profit in your pocket.What are the 4 types of QMS?What are the 4 types of QMS?