Quality Management – Control, Assurance, Improvement

Quality Management – Control, Assurance, Improvement

Quality Management: the processes that a business undertakes to ensure consistency, reliability, safety and fitness of purpose of product.

Quality control: reduces problems and defects in the product by using inspections at various points in the production process.

  • Businesses need to have defined quality standards and parameters

Quality assurance: system to ensure that set standards are achieved in production.

  • Quality assurance is done through measuring against pre-determined standards
  • ISO 9000: series of standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that define, establish, and maintain a quality assurance system for manufacturing and service industries.

Quality improvement: continuous improvement and total quality management (TQM).

  • Six Sigma: a quality management approach used to identify and remove the causes of problems in the operations process.
  • Continuous improvement: ongoing method of looking for ways to improve a business.

Total quality management (TQM): quality becomes a commitment and the responsibility to every employee in the business. It is applied to every aspect of the business’s operation and focuses on managing the total business to deliver quality to customers.


Extract from Business Studies Stage 6 Syllabus. © 2010 Board of Studies NSW.