Quality assurance
Contents
Definition
A way of preventing mistakes or defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_assurance Wikipedia)
Description
Quality Assurance (QA) involves identifying all the processes in the organization which directly affect quality and standardising them. This means making sure that the process achieves the desired result.
W. Edwards Deming, developed the idea of the System of Profound Knowledge (link in the #External links and references below). The core of this idea is that an organisation is a system, and in order to be efficient and effective it needs to continuously learn and improve. While he didn't explicitly comment on knowledge management (his theory was developed in the 1980's before knowledge management was knowledge management the way we know it today), the activities he describes are knowledge management activities, e.g. lessons learned.
In addition to the work that W. Edwards Deming did, in late 2015 a new clause was been added to ISO 9001, as follows:
ISO 9001:2105, Clause 7.1.6. Organizational Knowledge
The Organization should determine the knowledge necessary for the operation of its processes and to achieve conformity of products and services. This knowledge shall be maintained and made available to the extent necessary. When addressing changing needs and trends, the organization shall consider its current knowledge and determine how to acquire or access any necessary additional knowledge and required updates. Organizational knowledge is knowledge specific to the organization; it is generally gained by experience. It is information that is used and shared to achieve the organization’s objectives. Organizational knowledge can be based on: a) Internal Sources (e.g., intellectual property, knowledge gained from experience, lessons learned from failures and successful projects, capturing and sharing undocumented knowledge and experience; the results of improvements in processes, products and services); b) External Sources (e.g., standards, academia, conferences, gathering knowledge from customers or external providers).Organizational
(There are links in the #External links and references below that provide more commentary of the impact of this additional clause in the ISO 9001 Quality Standard)
