In recent years, the concept of quality has undergone a significant transformation. What was once known as Quality Assurance has evolved into Quality Engineering, and now, even further, into Quality Science.
This evolution is not just a matter of semantics; it reflects a profound shift in our understanding of what constitutes high quality product. In this article, we'll explore the journey from quality assurance to quality engineering and finally, to quality science.
Quality Assurance: The Foundational Era
In the past, Quality Assurance was the primary focus for organizations seeking to ensure their products or services met customer expectations. This approach involved verifying that processes were in place and that products conformed to predetermined standards.
While Quality Assurance is still essential today, it has become increasingly recognized as a necessary but insufficient foundation for achieving high quality product and incapable to cope with aggressive goals of high velocity organizations.
Quality Engineering: The Strategic Era
As the domain of quality evolved, organizations began to recognize the importance of designing and developing products with quality in mind from the outset. This led to the emergence of Quality Engineering, which focuses on creating products that not only meet customer needs but also exceed their expectations.
Quality Engineering is a strategic approach that involves understanding customer needs, identifying potential issues early on, and designing products that are reliable, efficient, and effective. Identifying and addressing potential issues early on, reduces the need for costly rework or redesigns later in the process. It also helps the product management team have greater clarity on the future road map of the product.
By incorporating quality engineering into your product development cycle, organizations can reduce defects, increase customer satisfaction, and decrease costs. While Quality Assurance is crucial for verifying conformance and detecting defects, it's a check-and-balance process that should always follow Quality Engineering.
Quality Science: The Holistic Era
In recent years, the concept of quality has undergone another significant shift. Quality Science represents an all-encompassing practice that encompasses not only product development but also organizational behavior, process management, and culture.
Quality science is a holistic approach that recognizes that quality is not just about products or processes but also about people, time, cost, and agility. This model allows organizations to comprehensively analyze the depth of quality, time to quality, cost of quality, constant optimization of quality, and agility of the quality team.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the evolution from quality assurance to quality engineering and finally, to quality science reflects a profound shift in our understanding of what constitutes high-quality performance.
Quality science represents an all-encompassing practice that recognizes the interconnectedness of product development, process management, organizational behavior, and culture. By adopting this holistic approach, organizations can achieve unparalleled levels of quality, customer satisfaction, and business success.