Which is more important, QA or QC?

Generally speaking, the former is more suitable for those who are good at communication, while the latter is better suited for those who prefer technical work. As for salaries, it depends on the employer; in our company, some QC workers earn more than QA workers, while others earn less

In our factory, QA employees earn higher salaries than QC employees, and they have significantly more power than QC employees; in fact, their authority even exceeds that of workshop supervisors, reaching the level of deputy factory managers； Moreover, a QA professional knows much more than a QC professional, because he or she not only needs to have knowledge of QC but also an understanding of the production process, as well as the ability to monitor whether changes in that process affect quality.

I’m just asking gently – is there any possibility of a QB? So what does that mean? Previously, there were QC teams in the factory, which the workers jokingly called QB teams.

QA, QUALITY ASSURANCE – quality assurance; QC, QUALITY CONTROL – quality control. Both are important for ensuring the quality of products, right? QA covers a broader range of aspects, including technical and environmental factors as well; QC is primarily focused on internal processes. QA is a prerequisite for product quality assurance, while QC serves as a powerful oversight mechanism for it. Regarding salaries, it seems that QA positions generally offer higher pay. It obviously depends on the boss’s attitude and the company’s policies.

QA does indeed earn more than QC, and has a higher status as well!

I thought it was about data management for workstations? Abbreviations also have many meanings; it would be great if that were made clear. Back to the topic: In most cases, are the two part of the same department, with a hierarchy involved? Many companies have to handle everything on their own. Including me. All the domestic companies that have been in contact with me for over 30 years are the same. So, it’s impossible to tell which is better. The differences in levels caused by regional and corporate distinctions are quite significant. Personal opinion.

The division of tasks varies; it seems that this distinction isn’t clear in ordinary companies, with only the pharmaceutical industry appearing to have such a clear separation. As for what is more important, it mainly depends on how the leadership of your company approaches things

How to manage QA-QC effectively

QA holds a higher status than QC, as quality comes first; moreover, QA offers greater opportunities for growth and improvement compared to QC……

Indeed, QA plays a more managerial role, while QC is merely an executor and often has no say in matters

There are fewer QA personnel, who are managers, while there are more QC personnel, who are the ones who carry out the tasks. In our company, QA employees earn much more than QC employees, as higher standards are required of QA professionals, who are tasked with resolving various quality issues

Generally speaking, QA should represent the quality management department, while QC refers to teams that are dedicated to addressing the specific stages in a quality management process where quality issues are most likely to arise. These teams identify the causes of such problems and take practical measures to prevent them from occurring again. The members of a QC team can come from different specialties and departments, forming a team with a mixed composition.

As I understand it: QA is the abbreviation for QUALITY ASSURANCE in English; its meaning in Chinese is quality assurance. In ISO8402:1994, it is defined as “all planned and systematic activities carried out within a quality management system, and verified as needed, in order to provide sufficient confidence that an entity can meet quality requirements.” Some organizations that implement ISO9000 establish departments or positions responsible for the quality assurance functions required by the ISO9000 standards; the people who carry out these tasks are known as QA personnel. Both ISO9000 and CMMI are process-oriented. In other words, product quality is improved through continuous improvement of the process. And how is process quality positively related to product quality? Quality assurance (QA) is then required. This is also a method highly regarded by both ISO9000 and CMMI. However, looking at the current situation of domestic software companies, many of them have process systems that are quite similar to one another, yet the quality of the products they develop varies greatly. There are many reasons for this difference, and the mechanical application of processes and their methods of execution is one of the important ones. 　　When establishing QA organizations, most companies also adopt this approach of \"borrowing from others\". It’s like seeing someone wearing a pair of very nice shoes and wanting to put them on yourself – they usually won’t fit you. The result is either forcing one’s foot into a shoe that’s too big, or cutting off part of the foot to fit into a shoe – the outcome is easy to imagine. What we should do is to \"measure the feet before buying shoes\" and \"tailor clothes to the body\". The same is true for establishing a QA organization: it is necessary to first understand the company’s culture, available resources, and the level of process maturity, before selecting an appropriate QA organization based on that information. Next, we will explore the establishment of a QA organization from a dynamic perspective. Establishing an organizational structure 　To set up an organization, the first thing to consider is its organizational structure. The organizational structure not only determines the responsibilities of positions to a large extent, but also determines how resources are allocated. Following the practices of most companies in China, QA organizational structures can be divided into three categories: functional structure, matrix structure, and a flexible structure that combines the two. 　　In the functional structure, each functional department establishes its own QA position, which is placed under senior managers and is independent of project teams. QA is directly accountable to the senior manager, but for operational purposes they must report to the project manager and are considered part of the project team. As shown in Figure 1. The advantage of this organizational structure is that QA can easily integrate into the project team, it’s easy to identify substantive issues, and problems can be resolved quickly. The downside is that the various functional departments operate relatively independently; there is a lack of exchange and sharing of experiences among them, and repeated investments in research on processes, methods, and tools may also occur. Under this organizational structure, as senior managers focus on business development, the career progression of QA professionals tends to be neglected, making it difficult for them to receive the necessary training and advancement. 　　In the matrix structure, a dedicated QA department has been established, on par with various business functional departments. QA is part of the QA department; administratively, it reports to the QA manager, while operationally, it reports to the senior managers and project managers of the business departments. As shown in Figure 2. In such an organizational structure, the QA department manager being responsible for QA evaluations and authorization helps to ensure the independence of QA and the objectivity of evaluations, as well as to maintain a balance between the organization’s long-term interests and the short-term interests of projects (or individuals). QA resources are shared among all projects and can be allocated dynamically based on project priorities, enabling more efficient use of resources; however, resource competition and conflicts may also arise. In addition, the QA department is responsible for improving QA processes, managing QA knowledge, and developing QA personnel, and it can concentrate resources on building the QA platform to avoid repeated investments. On the other hand, in a matrix structure, QAs find it difficult to integrate into the project team, and the issues identified are rarely resolved in a timely and effective manner. 　　A flexible structure is a hybrid form of functional and matrix structures, with QA teams established on the basis of the functional structure. 　　The QA team is a professional group, not an administrative body. The QAG Leader can be appointed by the Quality Management department or served concurrently by the QA officer from a specific business department. Like functional departments, QA is directly accountable to senior management, but reports operationally to project managers and the QAG Leader. Flexible structures incorporate many advantages of functional and matrix structures; they facilitate QA’s integration into project teams, enable the sharing of experience across departments, and contribute to the improvement of QA skills. The QAG Leader can extract common issues across various projects from the QA reports from different departments, to use for improving organizational processes. Companies can also promote the integration of QA research and its practical application by granting QAG Leaders different responsibilities, such as allocating QA management tasks to senior managers in accordance with the 20/80 principle. Define job responsibilities In CMMI, the main tasks of QA are process evaluation and product auditing. Based on practical experience, it is difficult for QA to demonstrate its value by merely carrying out these two tasks. To ensure that the output of the QA organization exceeds its input and to achieve added value, it is necessary to appropriately expand the responsibilities of QA based on the needs of the enterprise, such as process guidance, process measurement, and process improvement. Process guidance mainly involves assisting the project manager in formulating the project plan during the early stages of a project (including helping to define or modify project processes and process models, aiding in project estimation, establishing project acceptance criteria, setting quality objectives, etc.), providing training to project members on relevant processes and standards, and offering guidance throughout the project. Excessive measurement (including product measurement) has become a separate process area at CMMI ML2, yet it is a common requirement for all processes. In particular, the higher the maturity level, the greater the requirements for measurement, and the greater the difficulty. This requires professional personnel to take charge, and QA is a great choice. The main responsibilities include collecting, compiling, and analyzing metric data to support management information needs. Process improvement in CMMI is primarily the responsibility of EPG. But in fact, QA is closer to the environment in which the process is implemented, has a better understanding of how the process operates, and thus can more easily identify the \"shortest plank in the barrel\". At the same time, QA is also an important driving force for the pilot implementation of improvement processes. 　　After understanding these tasks of QA, do you think the QA responsibilities in every company should be the same or similar? This is indeed the current situation of many companies in China, and it is a very important factor contributing to the overall poor quality of QA work. When defining QA responsibilities, we should consider our own needs and the environment, which mainly include business requirements, process maturity levels, and corporate culture. 　　The business requirements mainly define the tasks that QA needs to carry out; for example, during peer review processes, QA can assist with the reviews and organizing meetings ； In the presence of outsourcing, QA may need to play a role in monitoring all aspects of it. 　　Process maturity is a crucial factor affecting the allocation of QA responsibilities; different maturity levels require different distributions of QA tasks, as shown in Figure 4. At lower maturity levels, it is necessary to extract best practices from various projects to define processes and guide their pilot implementation, and QA plays the most significant role in this regard. As the process was refined, institutionalized, and implemented, QA’s focus gradually shifted to process reviews and product audits. Once a company’s process maturity reaches level 4 or 5, compliance with the processes becomes a habit among employees; the need to review processes and products decreases, while measuring and optimizing process capabilities becomes the focus of QA work. 　　Corporate culture is like air to QA – it’s invisible, yet it has a profound impact on them. For example, in a company with a dynamic atmosphere, high levels of technology, and strong innovation capabilities, QA should tend to focus on service-oriented responsibilities ； In a company with strict discipline, low technology levels, and well-established rules and regulations, QA should focus on supervisory duties. Assigning staff to positions 　　QA positions were created during the establishment of the organizational structure, and now it is necessary to provide these positions with sufficient resources, particularly by assigning staff to them. Generally speaking, the staffing of QA personnel can be divided into two categories based on the characteristics of the enterprise: full-time and part-time. 　　Full-time means assigning dedicated QA personnel, whose main responsibility is quality assurance. When assigning such personnel, the most important thing is to consider whether their knowledge, skills, and qualifications meet the requirements of the organization and the position. These requirements vary in emphasis depending on the corporate culture and maturity level. For example, in a company with weak teamwork spirit and high levels of bureaucracy, communication may be an important quality requirement for QA professionals ； For companies with a low level of maturity that do not yet have standardized processes in place, an understanding of the business and expertise in QA may be the most important criteria for selecting a QA professional. 　　Part-time work involves assigning engineers to other functional departments or projects to carry out QA tasks; every engineer serves as a potential QA specialist. This is also an alternative approach for staffing QA roles; it is generally suitable for open cultures that are quality-oriented, and in turn can greatly contribute to the development of such a quality culture. However, such a scheme should be carefully integrated with organizational systems, such as reward and punishment systems and cost systems, otherwise it is likely to lead to conflicts of interest. 　　Since the concept of QA was introduced in China not long ago, there is a severe shortage of QA professionals. To obtain sufficient resources to carry out QA work, job rotation can also be adopted. For example, allow project managers to rotate between project management and QA roles, and require a certain amount of QA work experience as a prerequisite for taking on the role of project manager. By implementing job rotation, on the one hand, it addresses the shortage of QA resources; on the other hand, it helps those who take on different roles to integrate QA principles and methods into development and project management tasks, thereby improving product quality to a greater extent. 　　From the above analysis, we can see that establishing a QA organization requires dynamically considering factors such as the company’s culture, available resources, and the level of process maturity, so as to adapt measures to local conditions rather than applying rigid approaches. First, it is necessary to establish a suitable organizational structure, within which QA positions and reporting channels are defined. Next is to define the job responsibilities, and then assign appropriate QA personnel based on those requirements. Only after the organizational structure, job responsibilities, and personnel are properly established and integrated can the value of QA be fully realized, ensuring continuous improvement in product quality through ongoing process enhancements. 　QC is the abbreviation for QUALITY CONTROL in English; its meaning in Chinese is quality control. According to ISO8402:1994, it is defined as \"the operational techniques and activities undertaken to meet quality requirements.\" 　　Shipping products only after they have been inspected is the most basic requirement of quality management. Quality control is aimed at eliminating the factors that cause defects or unsatisfactory outcomes at all stages of the quality formation process, by monitoring it. Various quality control techniques and activities that are employed to meet quality requirements and achieve economic benefits. In the corporate sector, quality control activities primarily involve the management of production processes within a company; they are unrelated to the existence of contracts, and refer to technical and managerial actions taken to achieve and maintain quality. Quality inspection is subordinate to quality control and is an important activity within it. 　　Some organizations that implement ISO9000 establish a department or position responsible for the quality control functions required by the ISO9000 standards. The people who carry out these tasks are known as QC personnel, who are equivalent to product inspectors in ordinary companies, including incoming material inspectors (IQC), in-process inspectors (IPQC), and final product inspectors (FQC). 　　The work of QC mainly involves the inspection of finished products, raw materials, and auxiliary materials. QA, on the other hand, is responsible for ensuring quality across the entire company, including the approval of finished products, raw materials, and auxiliary materials, as well as the proper functioning of the quality management system. In the history of quality management, “QC” emerged first; shipping products only after they have been inspected is the most basic requirement of quality management. The QC function is responsible for monitoring and controlling the production process, as well as for collecting and analyzing process data, and it provides relevant information to other departments. 　　The old seven QC tools refer to: check sheets, stratification method, Pareto charts, cause-and-effect diagrams, scatter plots, histograms, and control charts. 　　The adoption of the seven QC tools indicates to a certain extent the level of advancement in the company’s management. The success or failure of the application of these techniques will become an important factor in a company’s ability to advance in the market: almost all OEM customers consider the use of statistical techniques to be an important aspect of evaluation, such as TDI, MOTOROLA, and others. 　　QC — Quality Control. Techniques and measures taken to meet the data quality requirements specified in standards or regulations. Quality control is aimed at eliminating the factors that cause defects or dissatisfaction at all stages of the quality formation process by monitoring it. Various quality control techniques and activities that are employed to meet quality requirements and achieve economic benefits. In the corporate sector, quality control activities primarily involve the management of production processes within a company; they are unrelated to the existence of contracts, and refer to technical and managerial actions taken to achieve and maintain quality. Quality inspection is subordinate to quality control and is an important activity within it. 　　“\"Operation technology\" refers to the collective term for control methods and techniques, while \"activity\" denotes the planned and organized application of these operation technologies by people, representing a scientific quality management approach. The former focuses on methods and tools, while the latter focuses on the activity process. The purpose of quality control is to focus on prevention, manage factors to ensure desired outcomes, guarantee compliance with specified requirements, and achieve economic benefits. 　　The main function of quality control is to minimize various quality variations and fluctuations through a series of operational techniques and activities. It runs through the entire process of quality generation, formation, and realization. In addition to controlling product variations, the quality control department also participates in management decision-making activities to determine quality levels.

It depends on the company; sometimes QA also takes on the tasks of QC

Here, QA is responsible for overseeing all aspects of quality-related matters, including patent registration, management systems, manufacturing processes, and new drug approvals – providing comprehensive oversight. Naturally, this gives them a higher level of expertise than QC. However, in terms of specialization, their understanding seems to be not deep enough; therefore, I believe that only those who have experience in production and quality control processes are qualified to take on QA roles, that is, management tasks.