What is Quality Assurance? Quality Assurance is a commitment by all levels of staff in a business to work together to produce the best possible quality product or service for its customers. A quality system designed to meet the requirements of the relevant ISO 9000 standard is the vehicle for quality assurance. That quality system is a management system which enables a business, through documented processes, checks and reviews, to operate efficiently and cost effectively, improving administrative efficiency and meeting customer needs and expectations. Monitoring the business’s performance for continuous improvement is an intrinsic part of any quality system. Why do we need it? There are many ostensible reasons for taking on quality assurance including: * increasing credibility in the marketplace * gaining advantage when tendering to major companies or government departments * improving administrative efficiency * reducing operational failures and consequent rework * cutting the costs of failures * preventing potential problems through trending techniques that are fundamental in the review process All of these reasons are valid, but the main reason for wanting to improve the quality of your service is to ensure that your customers are satisfied and will continue to use your company as a supplier. How Do We Get It? Your management decides on the company’s policies and objectives for quality, how it will achieve them, and who will have the responsibilities and authorities for ensuring they are achieved. A system of documentation is then designed to ensure uniform implementation of these policies and objectives and to ensure that they conform to the requirements of the quality system standard that is relevant to your particular business. The documentation may be designed by someone in your business who is familiar with quality concepts and practices or by an external consultant. Documentation would include a quality manual outlining the policies as they relate to the various elements of the standard and incorporating or referencing procedures, which detail the work processes involved in achieving the quality policies and objectives. The manual and procedures would be supported by records of the finished processes. They might be further supported by specific work instructions, or quality plans for specific projects. Once the documentation is in place and the procedures are implemented, a comprehensive internal audit of the system is conducted to make sure that it accords with the standard, that the system is suitable for achieving the quality objectives and your company is actually following its procedures as documented. At this point your system is ready for certification by a third party.