» Quality Assurance Standards

Quality assurance standard is a written set of instructions and guidelines followed by various industries in order to maintain the quality of their products or services. Big as well as small businesses adopt these quality standards worldwide and get certification after audit from the authorized body that ensures the company and its manufacturing or service delivery steps and procedures are in compliance with the laid down standards and polices. This certification enhances the brand value of the organization, its products or services and it also instills confidence in the customers. Some QA standard documents are industry specific while some apply to all organizations. One such universal standard that applies to all types of organizations is ISO 9001.

What Is ISO 9001

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO standards for quality are recognized worldwide and hence ISO certified organizations have far better opportunities to trade in the international market. ISO 9001, quality assurance standard can be followed by any kind of industry, whether it is service or manufacturing industry. Each organization should develop its own quality management system in order to adhere to ISO 9001 guidelines. To get ISO 9001 certification, the organization has to undergo three audits. The first audit is conducted by the quality monitoring and inspection professional from within the organization i.e. internal auditor. The second such audit is conducted by the customers using the product or service in question, and the third audit is conducted by the organization that is authorized to grant ISO certifications for quality maintenance.

Benefits Of ISO 9001 2008

The ISO 9001 standard was first published in 1987. The latest edition of the standard is ISO 90012008, which was released in December 2008. This edition has minor changes as compared to the earlier one i.e., ISO 90012000.

Adhering to this standard benefits the organizations in the following way

Systematic Approach

The standard helps the organizations to function in a more systematic manner. There are defined systems, processes, and procedures in the organizations to do each and every task. Teams are designated to perform these tasks. Hence, it results in more organized and systematic approach to work which improves employee satisfaction and retention.

Improved Quality

The systems are integrated in the whole organization to deliver good quality products or services. This leads to improved quality and less rework. All this helps the organization to reduce wastage and increase margins.

Customer Satisfaction

The customers trust the organizations that are ISO 9001 certified because this QA standard certification offers a sort or a assurance of the good practices and systems in organizations. When customers get good products or services in accordance to their requirements, their loyalty towards the organization increases. This results in more business for the organization. The profits of the organization also increase.

Increased Margins

Margins of the organization improve due to multiple effects. Some of the reasons for increase in margins are –

• When good quality products or services are manufactured or delivered, there is very little rework and fewer customer complaints. This results in lesser wastage and hence increased margins.
• Since according to the requirement of QA standard , there are set procedures, it results in greater employee satisfaction, which in turn results in greater productivity and improved margins. It also reduces the cost of training the employees.
• Since organization gets more business, their margins improve.

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Quality assurance standards are published documents that are recognized by various bodies and are used to develop quality management systems in different organizations. There are various quality standards which organizations can adopt depending on the nature of their business. Reputed organizations prefer to do business with organizations that follow good quality management systems. This assures them that the deliverables will be of good quality and that there will be no hassles in doing business with such firms.

Some Of The Quality Assurance Standards Include

ISO 9001

This is the most widely used standard. Any manufacturing or service industry can adopt this quality guarantee standard. It is based on eight principles, which determine that the quality systems developed and implemented by the organization help in satisfying customer needs properly. Organizations have to undergo audit process by an authorized body in order to get certified for ISO 9001. The organizations that are ISO 9001 certified are required to properly document, implement, and review their quality management systems periodically.

SQuaRE

This is a software quality standard. Quality is very important in IT industry. The software quality should strictly be maintained so that the customers are satisfied otherwise it results in huge losses for both customers and the company. ISO/IEC 25000 provides guidance to SQuaRE. These quality assurance standards are used to maintain the quality of software during the product life cycle process like defining the requirements of the customers, design, implementation, testing, and validation process. Also, it is used to maintain the quality while the product is in use.

TS 16949

This standard is specially meant for the automobile industry and has been developed by ISO and the IATF. Any other industry involved in supply chain management can also use this standard to improve their quality. Some of the big names in the field of automobile industry are members of IATF and hence TS 16949 is recognized by almost the entire automobile industry for quality. Adopting this standard help automobile companies all over the world to do business with foreign companies.

ISO 22000

ISO 22000 is used in food industry to maintain food safety and quality. Food industry has to maintain very stringent quality and safety parameters as bad quality of food can affect the health of the consumers. ISO 22000 quality assurance standards help these industries to develop quality management systems in such a way that the quality of food is maintained at all stages like farming, food processing, food packaging etc. This standard is generally combined with ISO 9001 and HACCP to obtain the optimum results.

ISO 17025

ISO 17025 is used for testing and calibration laboratories. Laboratories that conduct testing and calibration as well as organizations that have internal laboratories for similar tasks can follow this standard. To get ISO 17025 certification, the laboratories and organizations have to fulfill some technical and management requirements as mentioned in this standard. One of the benefits of getting ISO 17025 certification is that the test results of such laboratories are internationally accepted.

Besides the above, there are various other quality assurance standards followed by the organizations to develop their quality management systems.  Following international standards helps organizations to improve their quality continuously as well as do business globally.

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