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What Is Qa

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What is Quality Assurance and How Does it Help Your Business?

Quality assurance, in its broadest context, is the systematic effort by a business to ensure that its end product satisfies its intended use, meets customers’ expectations, and is produced consistently with zero defects. Of course, how well a business manages a quality assurance program is based on the complexity of the end product, the number of processes required to make the product, and the exactness with which those individual processes are defined and controlled. Quality assurance is not a stand-alone system. It is merely part of an overall quality management system that must include process controls, checks and balances, compliance audits, continuous improvement, training, and employee engagement at every level. This overall process is most-frequently defined as Total Quality Management, which is the umbrella under which all of these other systems reside.

Quality management systems are not just limited to “manufactured” products. Total Quality Management concepts can be employed by any business that provides a service or product. In most cases, the product is only one piece of satisfying the customer. To meet consumer expectations, not only does the product have to perform as specified, but it must be backed by a responsive service team, proactive customer support, and conflict resolution services. A manufacturer that makes a product that performs 99.9% of the time as expected will continuously lose one-tenth of its market share if an unhappy customer is not properly appeased when there is an issue. A quality assurance program attempts to control and enhance every aspect of the customer experience including the product’s fitness for use as well as its reliability.

So why should any of this matter to you as a business owner providing a service or manufacturing a product?

The

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