When two people talk about quality management, they rarely talk about the same thing. As in many areas, there are different ideas about professional fields, tasks, responsibilities and authorities in quality management. In this article you will learn more about the functions, methods and tools in quality management.
The reason why there is no uniform understanding of the functions in quality management is, on the one hand, because there are no professions to be learned in quality management in the traditional sense with an apprenticeship, vocational school and qualification. On the other hand, the demands and challenges of companies are often so different that there is rarely absolutely the same understanding of the task of quality management.
“In quality management, there are no professions to be learned in the traditional sense with an apprenticeship, vocational school and qualification.”
On the company side, internal and external changes significantly influence the need for quality assurance. Depending on the company or industry, customer satisfaction must be ensured individually and managed in different ways with regard to product and process flows.
Who or which department in a company takes on quality assurance tasks can also differ. The tasks can be bundled in one department or spread across several areas.
For example, if the purchasing department also takes care of the quality assurance of the purchased service, the production department takes care of the product quality of its own products or the management directly takes care of the quality management system. Depending on the size of the company and needs, tasks and responsibilities are bundled into specially created functions.
Here is an overview of common functions in quality (m/f/d)
– Head of Quality Management Department
– Compliance officer
– Compliance Manager
– Continuous Improvement Manager
– Customer Quality Manager
– Director of Quality Management
– Expert in statistical experimental design (DoE – Design of Experiments)
– Expert in reliability analysis
– External auditor
– IMS Manager
– IMS Systemmanager
– Internal Auditor
– Customer service
– Laboratory Quality Assurance Manager and Laboratory Assessor
– Head of Quality Management
– LEAN Manager
– Supplier quality management
– Measurement technician / 3D measurement technician
– Product safety officer
– Process control
– Processmanager
– Test equipment representative
– Quality auditor
– Quality representative
– Quality specialist
– Quality engineer
– Quality control
– Quality management auditor
– Quality management representative
– Quality management specialist
– Quality manager
– Quality Manager Automotive
– Quality Solution Manager
– Quality assurance
– Quality technician
– Quality inspector
– Quality Assurance
– Quality Engineer
– Quality Engineering
– Quality Management Representative
– Complaint processing
– Weld inspector / weld control
– Service Quality Manager
– Six Sigma Black Belt
– Six Sigma Green Belt
– Six Sgima Specialist
– Statistician for business, industry and technology
– System officer for integrated management systems
– System representative
– Systemmanager
– System manager for integrated management systems
– Supplier Quality Management
– Team leader quality management
– Team leader quality assurance
– UT Examiner – (Ultrasound)
– Validation technician
– Incoming goods inspector
– Materials tester
– NDT tester – (non-destructive)
Tools and methods used in the various functions in quality assurance:
– 5S
– 5 Why
– 7 Q
– 8D – Problemsolution
– A3 – Problemsolution
– APQP – Advanced Product Quality Planning
– Audit
– Brainstorming
– Controlplanning
– CTQ – Critical to Quality
– DoE – Desing of Experiments
– Error collection card
– FMEA – failure mode and influence analysis
– FRACS – Failure Reporting and Corrective Action
– FTA – Fault tree analysis
– Flowchart
– Gage R&R – Repeatability & Reproducibility
– Histogramm
– House of Quality
– IATF16949
– IMS
– Ishikawa-Diagramm / Fishbone- Diagramm
– ISO9001
– Correlation chart
– KT (Keptner Tregoe – problem solving)
– Lean Leadership
– Lean Production
– Lessons Learned
– Supplier evaluation
– Management review
– MSA – Measurement System Analysis
– Matrixdiagramm
– Network plan
– Test sheet
– Paretodiagramm
– PDCA – Problem Solving and Corrective Action
– Poka Yoke
– PPAP (Production Part Approval Process)
– Process metrics
– QM-Marketing
– QCC – quality control card
– Legal certainty in quality management
– Control chart
– Risk analysis
– R@R ( Run @ Rate)
– Six Sigma
– SPC – statistical process control
– Visual Management
– Scatterplot
– Statistical experimental design
– TS16949 / IATF 16949
– VDA
– VSA-Value Stream Mapping
These lists are common methods used to ensure or plan ahead for product and process quality, and there are others. We will continually add to these.
We will gradually introduce the individual functions, tools and methods in more detail. Provide an authentic look into everyday working life and present the requirements and areas of responsibility of the individual job profiles in more detail.
About the author
Ing. Michael Lindner, MBA The founder and managing director of qualityfox (www.qualityfox.at) worked in the quality industry for more than 15 years, has excellent technical expertise (including environmental and employee protection) and international strategic leadership experience.
