Quality Assurance Management

The success of any business is judged by the factors like high level of sales, profits, strong reputation, consumer satisfaction and of course the production of high quality products. Quality is an integral and vital component in all product based businesses, and managing the quality of the product is an essential factor for the survival and successful growth of an organization / business. Quality assurance is a process centered approach to ensure whether a company or organization is offering the best possible products or services to the customers. In other words, it is the process of determining whether products meet customers expectations. Quality assurance has a wide ranging concept covering all matters that individually or collectively influence the quality of a product. The terms 'Quality Assurance (QA)' and 'Quality Control (QC)' are often used interchangeably to refer to ways of ensuring the quality of a service or product. Both the terms are intended to ensure that the data collected are adequate to fulfill project objectives; but they have different meanings. Quality Assurance is the planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled. It is all about coming up with the processes and systems used to insure that a product meets company standards. Whereas Quality control deals with the actual testing of a product to make sure it works. It is the observation techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality. Quality Assurance Management can be defined as the management of all quality related project activities such as definition, planning, execution and control. A career in Quality Assurance Management involves management of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production and management, production and inspection processes. The chief principles of quality assurance management are fulfillment of adequate technical needs, quality of suppliers, check the product for its quality, performance, safety, and reliability standards, proper usage of materials, surety of product's technicality, reliability, maintainability and performance requirements. Quality Assurance is usually performed by a group of people and has many different levels of testing, from testing the minute tiny pieces of code, to the gigantic, testing of final products. A Quality Assurance Specialist, also known as quality monitoring manager or a project manager works with all stages of a project or product. He/ she monitor the standards and methods by which products are produced, whether food, textiles, clothing, vehicles, video games, MP3 player, toys or other manufactured items. It is the responsibility of the quality assurance personnel for developing and implementing quality management products. The quality assurance manager should ensure that all products manufactured or marketed by a company are free from any fault or errors, whether it is new or evolved, is produced and offered with the best possible materials, in the most comprehensive way and with highest quality. The services of these professionals go a long way in making industries more productive and profitable. Eligibility Candidates seeking a career in Qualify Assurance Management should focus on subjects like mathematics, statistics and science. To become a professional in the quality assurance industry one should have a graduate degree. Certificate, diploma, bachelors, masters and post graduate programs in Quality Management and Assurance are offered by various colleges in India. The purpose of Qualify Assurance Management courses is to make students familiar with all the important aspects of quality assurance management. The courses teach the student, how to create and put into place quality assurance programs in an organization. Basic eligibility criteria for certificate /degree and diploma course in Quality Assurance Management is 10+2 with science group. One can do Post Graduate degree/Diploma courses, M.Pharm / MBA/ Ph.D in Quality Assurance Management, after their graduation in any subject from a recognized college and university. Some among the prominent institutes conducting courses in quality assurance management are Indian Institute of Quality Assurance (Tiruchirapalli), Indian Institute of Quality Management (Jaipur), National Institute of Labour Education And Management (Chennai), Asian Institute of Quality Management (Maharashtra) etc. Besides these, Shriram Institute for Industrial Research (SRI) in Delhi, Seemanta Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Orissa, Siksha O Anusandhan University in Bhubaneswar offers M.Pharm in Quality Assurance. Gitam Institute of Pharmacy offers B.Pharm, M.Pharm and Ph.D in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality Assurance and the candidates are selected through the GIPAT (Gitam Institute of Pharmacy Admission Test). Indian Institute of Management Studies, Bangalore offers MBA Course in quality assurance. Selection in most of these institutes is based on the performance of the applicant in Entrance test, group discussion and personal interview. Entrance test shall consist of objective type questions in Match, Physics, Chemistry, English and General Knowledge. Personal skill: Persuasiveness, diplomacy, tact and resilient qualities are the most essential qualities needed for a quality assurance personnel. The quality assurance professionals should possess strong organizational, leadership, analytical, interpersonal and communication skill. A quality manager must have good verbal and written communication skills to direct the work of others. They need good report writing skills and negotiation skills with customer-oriented attitude. They should have sufficient knowledge about the tools, concepts and methodologies of quality management. They also require basic knowledge of applicable software to infer statistical data.