what is quality control

Quality control (QC) is a process that businesses use to ensure that a product or service adheres to a predefined set of quality standards. It is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a manufactured product or performed service meets the requirements of the client or customer. The primary objective of quality control is to identify and correct any deviations from the established quality standards. Quality control involves testing units and determining if they are within the specifications for the final product. The quality control used in a business is highly dependent on the product or industry, and several techniques exist for measuring quality. Quality control is similar to, but not identical with, quality assurance (QA). While QA refers to the confirmation that specified requirements have been met by a product or service, QC refers to the actual inspection of these elements. Quality control creates safe measures that can be implemented to make sure deficient or damaged products do not end up with customers. The quality control procedure involves several steps, including planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring the quality control process.