Quality Management Services and QMS Consultants

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality Assurance means that you have a system to consistently deliver products and services to a high standard; the standard expected by your customers.

It is achieved by implementing a quality management system that identifies what an organisation needs to do to assure the Quality of the “thing” (product and/or service) that their customers pay for.

Need help building or certifying a quality management system? Streamline provides ISO 9001 quality management consulting and certification services to businesses across Australia, from designing your QMS to independent internal audits and mentoring your team.

What is the difference between Quality Assurance, Quality Management & Quality Control?

Quality control is retrospective: a final check or lagging indicator of performance. It doesn’t take into account the whole quality management system framework.

Quality Management relates to the wholistic quality management system that has been established to ensure process performance.

When you have implemented a QMS, and achieved certification to ISO 9001 or certification to some other quality standard you are deemed to be a Quality Assured company.

Quality Assurance Explained

One of the simplest ways to explain Quality Assurance is with the analogy of a Big Mac. If you walk into any McDonalds around the world you can pretty much guarantee that your Big Mac will look and taste the same. Maccas has implemented a system to control the quality of the Big Mac, and there is more to the system than you might imagine. Consider the following aspects of delivering the same Big Mac across 119 different countries:

Inspector checking products on a line — McDonald’s quality assurance system aims to deliver an identical Big Mac across 119 different countries.

Staff training,
Production equipment,
Ingredients (including suppliers, recipes, stock rotation etc)
Burger cooking and assembly procedures (eg temperatures, paddy cook times, sequence, how much special sauce is used),
Packaging,
Feedback (complaints and compliments) Systems to make sure that any Non-conforming burgers are identified and addressed.

Quality Assurance Audits

A management system may also be audited in different ways including:

First-party/ Self Audit: Members of the organisation audit themselves or engage an ISO Consultant to conduct audit activities
Second-party / Customer Audit: The organisation is audited by a customer or related organisation
Third-party / Independent Audit: A member of a JAS-ANZ accredited Certification Body conducts an independent third-party assessment of the management system and the ability of the organisation to deliver Quality Assurance. This audit is required for companies to become ISO 9001 certified.

External link: for more information on ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Requirements CLICK HERE

From quality assurance to a certified system

Quality assurance comes to life in a documented ISO 9001 quality management system. Streamline can build, audit or mentor a practical QMS so the quality you assure is consistent, demonstrable and certified.

Speak with an experienced ISO auditor

Email hello@streamline.business or call us. You’ll deal directly with an experienced ISO auditor who’ll tailor a practical approach to your business. You’re also welcome to get in touch via our contact page.

Brisbane 07 3667 8280
Sydney 02 8315 7780
Melbourne 03 9034 3990

We look forward to hearing from you and answering any questions you may have.

General guidance only. This article is general information, not legal, financial, safety or compliance advice, and it does not take account of your specific circumstances. Streamline ISO Consultants are ISO management-system consultants, not lawyers or licensed advisers. Standards, laws and regulator guidance change, and details were correct only at the time of writing. Always seek professional advice before acting. See our full Disclaimer.