Quality Assurance, Quality Control, And Quality Management Systems: Clarifying Confusion

By James Jardine, MasterControl

Quality assurance (QA), quality control, and the overarching quality management system are the core elements of production consistency. They’re also a manufacturer’s fundamental mechanisms for maintaining regulatory compliance and making continual improvements. In a life sciences industry rife with similar sounding terminologies, however, it’s easy to misinterpret their definitions and misunderstand their unique purposes. Here we demystify the roles of each quality function, the ways they differ, and their impact on one another.