In the latest project at Microsoft, ET Management and Advice checks on the quality of the materials and the work done. And whether the technical specifications and building codes are met.
QC is a lot of ‘fieldwork’, the eyes and ears of the customer and designing party. In other words: does everything conform to the design as the customer bought it?
Quality Control is the field that measures the characteristics of products and services. We want to know if the 40 products mentioned in the example above have the specifications, as agreed with the customer.
Measuring, whether or not continuously, is necessary to test whether raw materials, intermediates and end products meet the requirements of the specifications.
Quality Control can best be understood as a measurement process. Measurements are carried out throughout the organization to check whether products and services meet what has been agreed with the customer. Procedures such as complaint measurements and auditing are also part of this.
This field can be compared to the measurements we take, for example, when a patient is operated on. During the operation process, all kinds of measurements are taken to see whether the patient (in this case also the recipient of the service) passes the operation process well.
All kinds of devices display values or issue signals, allowing the surgeon and other professionals to see if the process is going well. The Formula 1 races also provide nice comparisons. Data is collected during the race to visualize the status of the car and the driver.
Conclusion: QA and QC complement each other many times. One controls the processes, the other controls them by measuring the products and services. However, they often interfere with each other, while the trick is to reinforce each other
