Quality assurance: essential for sound planning
Quality assurance, often also referred to as quality management, is a method for planning and implementing specific measures within logistics. It basically refers to a system as a whole, certain processes or even products that are subjected to specific evaluation criteria. In the context of an audit, quality management can be divided into a product audit, a process audit or a so-called QM system audit, for example.
Important: Quality assurance or quality management is based on the fact that everything a company does is aimed at ensuring quality. Quality here refers to compliance with the respective requirements and needs, e.g. with regard to the properties of products or the target values of procedures and processes.
From quality assurance to the quality management system (QMS)
While quality assurance forms the theoretical framework, a QM system represents the concrete design. This system defines how quality management is structured and processes are organized - they form the standard so that deviations (positive and negative) can be determined in the form of concrete values. There are various quality management systems that are standardized according to international standards. One example of this would be DIN EN ISO 9000:2008, which is used worldwide as an industry-neutral standard.
The aim of quality management is to ensure work, process or product quality or to make processes more efficient. QM audits also reveal whether processes may need to be fundamentally restructured. For example, when inefficient processes have a negative financial or organizational impact.
