Difference Between Quality Assurance And Quality Control

What is the difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

ISO 9000 Definitions 1

• Quality Control : “A part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements”.
• Quality Assurance : “A part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.”

Other Definitions 2

• Quality Assurance is defined as “All the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system that can be demonstrated to provide confidence that a product or service will fulfill requirements for quality”.
• Quality Control is defined as “The operational techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality”.

• Quality Assurance is fundamentally focused on planning and documenting those processes to assure quality including things such as quality plans
and inspection and test plans
• Quality Control on the other hand is the physical verification that the product conforms to
these planned arrangements by inspection, measurement etc


• Quality Assurance is a system for evaluating performance, service, of the quality of a product against a system,standard or specified requirement
for customers.

 ISO 9000:2005 Quality Management Systems - Fundamentals and
Vocabulary

• Quality Control is the process involved within the system to ensure job management, competence and performance during the manufacturing of the the product or service to ensure it meets the quality plan as designed.

• Quality Control
– What: The activities or techniques used to achieve and maintain the product quality,
process and service.
– How: Finding & eliminating causes of quality problems through tools & equipment so
that customer’s requirements are continually met.
• Quality Assurance
– What: Prevention of quality problems through planned and systematic activities including
documentation.
– How: Establish a good quality management system and the assessment of its adequacy&
conformance audit of the operation system & the review of the system itself.

• Quality Control just measures and determines the quality level of products or services. It is a process itself.
• Quality Assurance is a complete system to assure the quality of products or services. It is not only a process, but a complete system including also control. It is a way of management.

Basic QA and QC concepts