Quality Assurance Career Guide and Counseling

Question: quality assurance? explain In term of perception of satisfaction to both internal and external customers, the influence of quality assurance by the Total Quality Management cultuer

Answer: TQM depends on closed loop management, which means, like Kan Ban, each succeeding process is self checking. Repetitions of failure easily identify lapses in concentration and gaps in skills and training. This ensures that the operative gets job satisfaction from consistent achievement and the end user has the satisfaction of a reliably high quality product. The average quality achievement of companies is around 99.4%., or 60,000 rejects in 1 million. A marginal improvement of 0.1% means an increase in output of 10,000 without any extra expenditure, or labour/time.......... and all that that means in extra company revenue.

Question: Can somebody tell me about Quality Assurance work for a Pharmaceutical company? I am somewhat interested in changing careers in the Pharmaceutical industry. I am curious to know what the job functions are for Quality Assurance in the Pharmaceutical industry. Can somebody tell me what exactly they do?

Answer: I am a corporate recruiter and I recruit for a pharmaceutical company. The job functions for Quality Assurance in this industry are easy to explain. The job functions include working in a clean room environment testing the newly manufactured product, depending on what it is, for many different types of defects or chemical measurements. Understanding of measurements (volumes and weights) is a must. Testing of PH and Acid levels is generally a requirement. Most Quality Assurance tech's for the industry are Six Sigma Certfied and GMP certified. You HAVE to be a math person and be able to spot defects. I know most companies will do a math comprehension test before hiring and an extensive criminal backround check. These companies simply manufacture drugs for certain companies (over the counter and behind the counter) and then ship out. Quality Assurance usually will make sure that the manufactures and packers are following SOP's, which is the reason they look for supervisory experience.

Question: What would be an easy event to do quality assurance for? I have to do a project and i don't know what to pick. Basically I need to pick an event to do and do quality assurance for it. I'm trying to think of something that would be easy to do quality assurance for. Something that needs it so i can show i know what quality assurance is. I have gotten a complete mental block. Any one with any ideas to throw my way? Might get the ball rolling again Are you getting mixed up with quality control? :P

Answer: QA does not have anything to do with events, QA is to do with a process such as a production line, be it for frozen chicken, plastic extrusions or motorbike headlamps. Are you getting confused with events hosting?

Question: Engineering specification - What's the difference between "Quality Assurance" and "Inspection and Testing"? I've been tasked to re-organize an engineering specification at work. There is a section called "Quality Assurance" and another called "Inspection and Testing." What's the difference? Seems to me the same type of information should fit under both categories. Oh, and if it makes a difference, Quality Assurance is listed under the main header "General," and Inspection and Testing is listed under the main header "Execution."

Answer: Part of your query will depend on the industry that you are working in. However, generally speaking - Quality Assurance covers the entire scope of the organization in how to prevent things from going wrong in the first place. While Inspection and Testing is about what is actually being tested (either after something goes wrong, after manufacture of a product, during the production of a product or before something is made {i.e. incoming supplier parts or materials}) In your particular case, it sounds as if you are working to an industry or national standard (i.e. ISO/TS 16949, TL 9000 or AS 9100) and need to align for an future audit of you department. So one idea is to look at the document you are using as you base and see what you can find in an internet search around that topic. You should be able to find sample manuals that other companies have online for their suppliers/customer that you can use as a model. Another thought would be to call the American Society for Quality (ASQ) at 800-248-1946 and ask them for the local contact of a Section/Chapter in your area. Contact that person and find out when local meetings are being held. You should be able to network with that group to get some very specific examples that will help you. Also, the ASQ has national groups called Divisions that have industry specific topics that you might find very useful as well as a range of references (books and magazines) around this stuff. There are also two other magazines that you should be aware of: Quality Digest and Quality Magazine. Both are free and you can check out their websites to see if they have anything relating to the specific standard that you are working to. Now in general - for the Quality Assurance section in the General category, list what you / your department is doing around preventing things from going wrong. This could include things like Advanced Quality Planning, Standard Operating Procedures for your group, Listing what the normal operating parameters are, etc. Inspection and Testing should have things like: what equipment is available, how is it calibrated and how are Gage Repeatability and Reproducibility Studies (GR&R) done, what are the standard procedures for using the equipment, what are the standard procedures for doing testing in your organization, who is qualified (and how) of the testing equipment, etc. So yes, your analysis that these two sections are similar is valid. The answer will depend on the level of engineering that you are doing in your organization and the criteria that you are working with to get more specific information on what you want / need. At some point, you may need an expert in that particular standard to assist you in fine tuning your needs. The three groups listed can be used to help find consultants or people in the field who might be willing to help. Networking in other engineering professional societies can also be useful (check your local library for a set of books called the Encyclopedia of Associations to find any number of engineering groups). Once you have your system set up, you may then need to get some professional auditors in to look the system over to give you more ideas. You can again call the ASQ or contact the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI - out of England) to assist in that need. This may all sound like a lot, but you can get the needed information by focusing on the standard that you are working with.

Question: I have been asked to set up a Quality Assurance system for the Translation Agency I work for? We are hoping to be awarded the BS EN 15038 but I have no idea where to start with a quality assurance system that they will need to have. Could someone possibly give me a few steps on what i should be doing, where i should start, I am a complete beginner so if you could make your answer simple that would be great!! Thanks!!

Answer: 1. Read the documentation for BS EN 15038. 2. Get a checklist used for the audit done before awarding BS EN 15038 3. Figure out what all you are doing right as per the checklist 4. Start working on things you arent doing which the checklist needs

Question: How do I get a Quality Assurance job with only 24 hours of college? I have been trying to get into a job in Quality Assurance/ Policy Compliance since I left the Army in 2003. I have 18 months experience of call center QA from my current job. My company is laying everyone off where I work. I have an offer from a company that does similar work, but there is no guarantee I will get experience in Quality Assurance, and it is a very boring job to me. I just wanted to know the possibility of getting a QA job with the college and experience I have and , if so, what type of QA would hire someone like me (Industrial, Technical, etc.)?

Answer: First all job experience counts as good. Not working doesn't do a thing for you. If you want to make big money doing something exciting and not call centering for QA, you need to have an education or at lest lots of recent relevant experience in the field. I would go to a place that you'd like to work and talk to their people and find out what they want and require. It really is as simple as asking and then doing what it takes while you work at the job you don't really like. You have to walk before you run and you have to have what it takes to ask for what you want...how to get it and then take action. You need to ask several companies or call people that are doing the job you want to do. Act interested, not like you want their job...they may not help you then. lol. Good luck.

Question: How one can improve quality assurance in Software? How can one can improve quality assurance in Software?

Answer: By defining and following a quality process. Cheers.. Nilesh

Question: What are some key words I should put for a Quality Assurance Engineer resume? any advice about a resume for QA engineer (Quality Assurance( is great. Thanks.

Answer: I recommend that you do a little quick research ... go to hotjobs.com or monster.com, and do a job search for "Quality Assurance Engineer" which will bring up a lot of job descriptions by various companies. Now, review several of the postings, and you will start to see which keywords pop up in most frequently in the descriptions, and what companies who hire Quality Assurance Engineers are looking for.

Question: An internal control policy for an online fashion accessories store requires a quality assurance check befor? An internal control policy for an online fashion accessories store requires a quality assurance check before a shipment is made. The tolerable exception rate for this internal control is 0.05. During an audit, 500 shipping records were sampled from a population of 5,000 shipping records and 12 were found that violated the control. What is the upper bound for a 95% one-sided confidence interval estimate for the rate of noncompliance?

Answer: This is at least the fourth time you've posted this question. I believe that this is a violation of the Yahoo guidelines. I'll be happy to help you as soon as you show what you've done so far, so I know where you're stuck. I'm not going to do the entire problem for you, since that would be cheating.

Question: How can I improve Quality Assurance? I'm trying to expand my postion as a quality assurance rep for my west coast call center. I already monitor phone calls and make sure reps are properly helping the clients and I also manage the accounts the reps set up to make sure they are properly being set up. Thats not enough! I need you expert I ideas, sugestions, Just more things to make his job more effective!

Answer: Identify areas of trouble and design 1-hour training sessions to address those areas. Also, put into place some measures for screening and hiring in order to find the most qualified candidates.