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Jump to: navigation, search Quality assurance (QA) refers to the systematic measurement, comparison with a standard, monitoring of processes and an associated feedback loop that confers error-prevention. This can be contrasted with Quality "Control". which is focused on process outputs. Two principles included in QA are: "Fit for purpose", the product should be suitable for the intended purpose; and "Right first time", mistakes should be eliminated. QA includes management of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production, and management, production and inspection processes. Suitable Quality is determined by product users, clients or customers, not by society in general. It is not related to cost and adjectives or descriptors such "High" and "Poor" are not applicable. For example, a low priced product may be viewed as having high quality because it is disposable where another may be viewed as having poor quality because it is disposable.
Contents
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1 History o 1.1 Initial efforts to control the quality of production o 1.2 Wartime production o 1.3 Postwar 2 Steps for a typical quality assurance process 3 Failure testing 4 Statistical control 5 Total quality management 6 QA in software development o 6.1 Models and standards 7 Company quality 8 Using contractors and/or consultants 9 Quality assurance in European vocational education & training 10 Bibliography o 10.1 Journals o 10.2 Issues o 10.3 Books 11 See also 12 References 13 External links
[edit] History
[edit] Initial efforts to control the quality of production
During the Middle Ages, guilds adopted responsibility for quality control of their members, setting and maintaining certain standards for guild membership[citation needed]. Royal governments purchasing material were interested in quality control as customers. For this reason, King John of England appointed William Wrotham to report about the construction and repair of ships[citation needed]. Centuries later, Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the British Admiralty, appointed multiple such overseers[citation needed]. Prior to the extensive division of labor and mechanization resulting from the Industrial Revolution, it was possible for workers to control the quality of their own products. The Industrial Revolution led to a system in which large groups of people performing a specialized type of work were grouped together under the supervision of a foreman who was appointed to control the quality of work manufactured.
[edit] Postwar
In the period following World War II, many countries' manufacturing capabilities that had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt. General Douglas MacArthur oversaw the re-building of Japan. During this time, General MacArthur involved[citation needed] two key individuals in the development of modern quality concepts: W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. Both individuals promoted the collaborative concepts of quality to Japanese business and technical groups, and these groups utilized these concepts in the redevelopment of the Japanese economy. Although there were many individuals trying to lead United States industries towards a more comprehensive approach to quality, the U.S. continued to apply the Quality Control (QC) concepts of inspection and sampling to remove defective product from production lines, essentially ignoring advances in QA for decades[citation needed].
test of previous articles plan to improve design to include improvements and requirements manufacture with improvements review new item and improvements test of the new item
Traditional statistical process controls in manufacturing operations usually proceed by randomly sampling and testing a fraction of the output. Variances in critical tolerances are continuously tracked and where necessary corrected before bad parts are produced.
1. Elements such as controls, job management, adequate processes, performance and integrity criteria and identification of records 2. Competence such as knowledge, skills, experience, qualifications 3. Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit and quality relationships. 4. Infrastructure (as it enhances or limits functionality) The quality of the outputs is at risk if any of these aspects is deficient. QA is not limited to the manufacturing, and can be applied to any business or non-business activity:
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Design work Administrative services Consulting Banking Insurance Computer software development Retailing Transportation Education Translation
It comprises a quality improvement process, which is generic in the sense it can be applied to any of these activities and it establishes a behavior pattern, which supports the achievement of quality. This in turn is supported by quality management practices which can include a number of business systems and which are usually specific to the activities of the business unit concerned. In manufacturing and construction activities, these business practices can be equated to the models for quality assurance defined by the International Standards contained in the ISO 9000 series and the specified Specifications for quality systems. In the system of Company Quality, the work being carried out was shop floor inspection which did not reveal the major quality problems. This led to quality assurance or total quality control, which has come into being recently.
Function Deployment (QFD), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP).
A different approach was developed by the European VETWORKS project. The project builds on the observation, that over the past years theres rapid growing VET networks throughout Europe, with a strong tendency to interlocking educational activities across organisations and sectors. It is argued that the vast majority of instruments and methods of quality assurance available for educational planning, monitoring and evaluation on provider level do not meet the new requirements. They are designed for managing the quality of either individual organisations or discrete training processes and structures, and this way are systematically counting out collaborative quality processes within newly emerging learning networks. The VETWORKS approach therefore shall allow local networks to examine their strengths and weaknesses in the
area of vocational education & training. When local networks understand the factors that contribute to their success and those that pose challenges, they can better undertake strategies to maximize their strengths and effectively address their weaknesses. Recent experience in place-based learning strategies, shows that learning communities often deploy three key success areas (Faris, 2007):
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Partnership - learning to build links between all sectors and mobilize their shared resources; Participation - learning to involve the public in the policy process as well as learning opportunities; Performance - learning to assess progress and benchmark good practice.
The SPEAK-tool, adopted under the VETWORKS initiative to each of these areas deploys indicative descriptors, which local networks can use to determine achievements in their activities towards building on local VET quality. Following the EQARF process model, each indicative descriptor can be assigned a certain stage of the P-D-C-A cycle. This not only allows for compliance with the EQARF principles, but rather extends the original model by deploying a separate network level, bridging between systems and institute level. The quality process cycle employs four key areas of activity, typically found in quality management systems: quality planning, control, assurance and improvement. Each area of activity is focused on a specific quality issue, such as what do we want to achieve?, which concrete operations are required to ensure achievement? what have we achieved? what needs to be improved? indicative descriptors and process cycle define the core elements of quality management in VET networks. SPEAK aims at using quality assurance on a new range by systematically taking advantage of the EQARF and combining it with state-of-the-art methodologies of self-evaluation, especially the SPEAK instrument. By using SPEAK, stakeholders and managers of educational networks and programmes will be able to link progress indicators available for provider, network and system level:
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provider level: SPEAK helps to systematically gain knowledge about VET providers performance in their working environment (at the market, or in the network), network level: SPEAK helps to evaluate progress-indices, and measure the total operating performance of educational networks and organizations, by connecting relevant data on all actors levels: collaborators, volunteers, management etc. system level: SPEAK helps to reflect and concretize descriptors available for the system level in the light of local VET strategies and programmes.
Finally, on the basis of different analysis options SPEAK also can help to get essential insights in long-term effects of educational programs and requirements for change. The below table reflects this construction principle.