Quality Control and Quality Assurance System

Both Quality Assurance and Quality Control falls under the part of Quality management, Quality
Management is defined as the set of coordinated activities to direct and control an organization with
regard to quality, which generally includes the establishment of the quality policy, quality objectives,
quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement

Quality Assurance focuses on providing the confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled and the
quality control focuses on fulfilling quality requirements.

While quality assurance relates to how a process is performed or how a product is made, quality control
is more the inspection aspect of quality management

In the project management triangle wherein the Scope, Cost and Schedule forms the three sides of
constraint for quality, The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project.
The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project. The scope constraint refers
to what must be done to produce the project's end result. These three constraints are often competing
constraints: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost, a tight time constraint
could mean increased costs and reduced scope, and a tight budget could mean increased time and
reduced scope.

The following things to be considered when defining objectives for quality;

1. Available funding and time.

2. Existing corporate policies.
3. Key requirements of the business.
4. Key requirements of stakeholders.
5. The views of external organizations.
6. Local and national legislation.

Both Quality Control and Quality Assurance are desired to draw the path for Quality Management
System towards continual improvement which primarily focuses on the below elements

1. Quality Policy
2. Quality Objectives
3. Quality manual
4. Organizational structure and responsibilities
5. Data management
6. Processes including purchasing
7. Product quality leading to customer satisfaction
8. Continuous improvement including corrective and preventive action
9. Quality instruments
10. Document Control

ICAD is the ISO 9001:2015 certified organization which follows the seven quality management principles
for the organizational improvement
1. Customer focus
Understand the needs of existing and future customers
Align organizational objectives with customer needs and expectations
Meet customer requirements
Measure customer satisfaction
Manage customer relationships
Aim to exceed customer expectations

2. Leadership
Establish a vision and direction for the organization
Set challenging goals
Model organizational values
Establish trust
Equip and empower employees
Recognize employee contributions

3. Engagement of people
Ensure that peoples abilities are used and valued
Make people accountable
Enable participation in continual improvement
Evaluate individual performance
Enable learning and knowledge sharing
Enable open discussion of problems, constraints

4. Process approach
Manage activities as processes
Measure the capability of activities
Identify linkages between activities
Prioritize improvement opportunities
Deploy resources effectively

5. Improvement
Improve organizational performance and capabilities
Align improvement activities
Empower people to make improvements
Measure improvement consistently
Celebrate improvements

6. Evidence-based decision-making
Ensure the accessibility of accurate and reliable data
Use appropriate methods to analyze data
Make decisions based on analysis
Balance data analysis with practical experience

7. Relationship management
Identify and select suppliers to manage costs, optimize resources, and create value
Establish relationships considering both the short and long term
Share expertise, resources, information, and plans with partners
 Collaborate on improvement and development activities
Recognize supplier successes

Approach, tools and techniques of the Quality Assurance System

The focus of quality assurance is on the processes used in the project. Quality assurance ensures that
project processes are used effectively to produce quality project deliverables. It involves following and
meeting standards, continuously improving project work, and correcting project defects.

The ICAD follows the below Quality Assurance approach to implement the Quality Management
Framework where the approach is based on the PDCA cycle.

1. Plan quality management - The process of creating a quality management plan that includes the
various parameters to be monitored and their thresholds on the project.
2. Perform quality assurance - The process of assuring that the project is following the quality
management plan
3. Control quality - The process of implementing the actions mentioned in the quality management
plan.
4. Quality improvement - The process of analyzing performance and taking methodical, systemic
actions to improve it.

The Tools and Techniques used to perform the Quality Assurance System are;

1. Quality Management and Control Tools - All tools and techniques used in plan quality and
quality control processes, and tools such as;
a. Cost-benefit Analysis An analysis that helps determine the optimum level of quality in
the project.
b. Cost of Quality The amount of money it would cost in quality management efforts in
the project.
c. Seven Basic Quality Tools Cause and effect diagrams, flowcharts, check sheets, Pareto
diagrams, histograms, control charts, and scatter diagrams.
d. Benchmarking A way of arriving at the projects quality by looking at other projects or
competitors.
e. Design of Experiments A way to determine the factors that have the greatest impact
on quality.
f. Statistical Sampling A way to determine how many items should be checked in the
project to give confidence about the projects quality. Statistics tell us how much certain
we would be when we pick x number of random samples from a lot.
g. Additional Quality Planning Tools Other tools used, such as brainstorming, nominal
group techniques, etc.
h. Meetings In order to discuss and resolve any project level issue, we may have
meetings.
 2. Quality Audits - Audits in the project that verify the projects evidence against the projects
quality management plan. Quality audit is the process of systematic examination of a quality
system carried out by an internal or external quality auditor or an audit team. It is an important
part of organization's quality management system and is a key element in the ISO quality system
standard. Audits are an essential management tool to be used for verifying objective evidence of
processes, to assess how successfully processes have been implemented, for judging the
effectiveness of achieving any defined target levels, to provide evidence concerning reduction
and elimination of problem areas. For the benefit of the organization, quality auditing should
not only report non-conformances and corrective actions, but also highlight areas of good
practice. In this way other departments may share information and amend their working
practices as a result, also contributing to continual improvement.
3. Process Analysis - A way of implementing improvements in the project, when you want to
understand a work process or some part of a process, these tools used are;
a. Flowchart: A picture of the separate steps of a process in sequential order, including
materials or services entering or leaving the process (inputs and outputs), decisions that
must be made, people who become involved, time involved at each step and/or process
measurements.
b. Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA): A step-by-step approach for identifying all
possible failures in a design, a manufacturing or assembly process, or a product or
service; studying the consequences, or effects, of those failures; and eliminating or
reducing failures, starting with the highest-priority ones.
c. Errorproofing: The use of any automatic device or method that either makes it
impossible for an error to occur or makes the error immediately obvious once it has
occurred

Health and Safety System

A Health and Safety Management System involves the introduction of processes designed to decrease
the incidence of injury and illness in the employers operation. Successful implementation of the system
requires management commitment to the system, effective allocation of resources, and a high level of
employee participation. The scope and complexity of a Health and Safety Management System will vary
according to the size and type of workplace.

The following elements are the basic components of a Health and Safety Management System, and are
all very much interdependent.

1. Management Leadership and Organizational Commitment

2. Hazard Identification and Assessment
3. Hazard Control
4. Work Site Inspections
5. Worker Competency and Training
6. Incident Reporting and Investigation
 7. Emergency Response Planning
8. Program Administration

When beginning to develop and implement health and safety systems at any work site, it is important to
remember that communication is the key to success. Involve employees at all levels in the development
of the system. Both workers and employers will gain from their involvement, and the system will be
better as a result of their input.

Element 1: Management Leadership and Organizational Commitment - Management needs to show that
they are on board for this safety system for it to run smoothly. They need to be committed to making a
workplace safer. You should write up a Health and Safety Policy that includes the responsibilities of
management as well as workers, the goals and objectives of the Health and Safety System, and a written
copy of the agreement of the commitment to the Health and Safety System

Element 2: Hazard Identification and Assessment - In order to fix a problem you have to know what the
problem is. You have to identify the source of the issue and then assess everything that could have or
did happen

Element 3: Hazard Control - Now that you know what the problem is you can start to take action to take
care of it and prevent it from happening again. There are three methods of controlling a hazard.
Engineering which removes the hazard completely, Administrative which is used when a hazard cannot
be removed, it lessens the exposure of a hazard to workers and Personal Protective Equipment which is
the least effective but is the easiest to put in place.

Element 4: Work site Inspections - Inspections are conducted to insure that the hazard controls are
working effectively. The inspections are also to make sure that workers are properly using the hazard
controls.

Element 5: Worker Competency and Training- Workers need the knowledge to do their job properly and
safely. Any visitors to the workplace need to have an orientation so they know where it is safe to be and
where it's not.

Element 6: Incident Reporting and Investigation - When an incident occurs it needs to be looked over in
detail to find out why the incident happened and maybe make changes to the procedure of how a
certain machine may be run to prevent this incident from happening again.

Element 7: Emergency Response Planning - An emergency response procedure is put in place for the
point of making sure you have all the safety possible. If an accident does happen, you should know what
to do in case such an event should happen.

Element 8: Program Administration - This is making sure that all records of the Health and Safety System
are kept to review what happened and why. This can serve as an overall inspection to the Health and
Safety System and if there need to be any changes.
Approach, Tools and Techniques of the Health and Safety System
The approach to implement the proper health and safety system is through the Deming cycle Plan-Do-
Check-Act and the strategic steps include;

1. Health and Safety Policy

2. Organizing Health and Safety
3. Planning and implementation
4. Measuring Health and safety performance
5. Auditing
6. Reviewing Performance

The health and safety system approach ensures that:

1. The implementation of preventive and protective measures is carried out in an efficient and
coherent manner
2. Pertinent policies are established
3. Commitments are made
4. All the workplace elements to assess hazards and risks are considered
5. Management and workers are involved in the process at their level of responsibility

A prerequisite of effective health and safety plans and objectives is that they should be SMART, i.e.:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic/Relevant
Time bound

The below technique is utilized for the successful health and safety system

1. Identify the key processes - In the case of health and safety, these will be the management
arrangements, risk control systems and workplace precautions.
2. Analyze the key management arrangements and risk control systems to produce a process map
or flow chart - If the management arrangements and risk control systems have been designed
correctly, it should be relatively easy to produce a flowchart. It is vitally important to understand
how the process actually operates on the ground, so it is important to involve those responsible
for implementing the process in this activity.
3. Identify the critical measures for each management arrangement and risk control system - It is
important to include the people involved in implementing the arrangements and systems in
deciding what the critical measures might be.
4. Establish baselines for each measure - Once the individual measures have been established then
baseline data needs to be established.
 5. Establish goals or targets for each measure - This should be done by involving the people who
are expected to operate the particular activity rather than imposing goals or targets on them
arbitrarily.
6. Assign responsibility for collecting and analyzing the data - It is important to assign responsibility
for collecting and analyzing the data, and to hold people accountable for this activity.
7. Compare actual performance against target - The emphasis should be on achievements rather
than failures, but it is important to analyze the reasons for substandard performance if
improvements are to be made.
8. Decide on corrective action - The measurement data should provide information to enable
decisions to be made about what corrective action is required and where and when it is
necessary.
9. Review the measures - The measures derived need to be reviewed regularly to ensure that they
remain appropriate, useful and cost-effective. There should not be frequent hangs of measures
because this can lead to confusion.
10. Organizational Learning - Continue to make efforts to improve Health & Safety on a day-to-day
basis. Share and seek ideas from industry peers and colleagues.

Environmental System
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a structured framework for managing an organizations
significant environmental impacts. The latter vary between organizations, but typically will include
waste, emissions, energy use, transport and consumption of materials. For maximum effectiveness, the
environment management system is built into the existing management structure instead of a
standalone system and the following benefits can be obtained

1. Manage and improve its environmental performance (managing negative impacts) and helping
to increase resource efficiency (e.g. cutting waste and energy use)
2. Comply with environmental laws and regulations
3. Generate financial savings through well-managed use of resources and efficient practices
4. Improve its standing and reputation with staff, client companies, partner organizations and
wider stakeholders
5. Adapt to a changing environment (either its operations or its products/ services)

Identifying environmental aspects and impacts and then reviewing environmental compliance
requirements shall be completed when developing an environmental management system. Material,
such as inspection checklists and procedures, to assess and manage legal compliance should be
developed. An effective and correctly developed environmental management system should therefore
assist organizations with meeting their environmental legal requirements.

Implementation of an environmental management system requires the following steps to be completed

by an organization:

1. Development of an environmental policy that reflects its commitments;

 2. Appointment of a person(s) responsible for its coordination
3. Identification of how the organization interacts with the environment
4. Identification of actual and potential environmental impacts
5. Identification of relevant legal and other requirements
6. Establishment of environmental objectives, targets and programs
7. Monitoring and measurement of the progress to achieve its objectives
8. Reviewing the system and environmental performance
9. Continuous improvement of the organizations environmental performance

An EMS is a structured framework for managing an organizations significant environmental impacts. It

provides a process through which organizations can engage with employees, customers, clients and
other stakeholders. Whatever scheme is adopted, the elements of the EMS will largely be the same,
following the Deming Cycle of:

Plan what youre going to do

Do what you planned to do
Check to ensure that you did what you planned
Act to make improvements

1. Initial Review of existing EMS type structures and commitments within the organization (such as any
existing environmental policy commitment for the organization, documented procedures and
responsibilities etc.) and existing environmental controls and activities.

2. Investigate potential trends that effect the organization (or support the case for an EMS), eg; Trends
and developments in legislation (increasing pressure for environmental legislation at regional, national
and local level), Fiscal trends on businesses such as the increasing financial implications of climate
change and waste disposal costs. Trends in commerce and trade such as increasing requirements to
demonstrate positive environmental management in commercial contracts with clients (supply chain
pressures). Increasing public concerns with the environment.

3. Consider the main interests and stakeholders in the process (e.g. shareholders, customers, clients
regulators, and the public).

4. Review the main options available for EMS certification and consider their suitability for the
organization. Factors may include, the benefits of branding and public profile offered by a scheme such
as EMAS (e.g. through its logo and its public reporting requirement). Consideration of ISO 14001. The
benefits of a phased implementation approach from an existing national standard

5. Secure appropriate commitment at senior management level for EMS development

Approach, Tools and Techniques of the Environmental System

Environmental Policy - An environmental policy is a document which clearly sets out the overall aims
and intentions of ICAD with respect to the environment. Developing an environmental policy is often the
first step taken by ICAD to undertake environmental management. An environmental policy signals a
commitment to environmental management and can prepare the way for further environmental
management activities.

Environmental Auditing - Environmental auditing is a tool for checking whether the organization is
doing what it should be doing. For instance a legislative compliance audit checks that those activities of
the firm covered by environmental legislation (i.e. what it is doing) actually comply with that legislation
(i.e. what it should be doing). An environmental audit will tell a firm or an organization whether its
waste management practices (i.e. what it is doing)

Environmental Indicators - Environmental indicators allow ICAD to measure both its environmental
performance and its efforts to improve its performance. Indicators can be used within an environmental
management system to check that the organization has met the targets if is required to set for itself.

Eco-balance - A company eco-balance records the various raw materials, energy, resources, products
and wastes entering, held within and leaving a company over a specified period of time. In other words,
it provides a record of a companys physical inputs, stock and outputs. Once a company knows exactly
what is coming in and going out, it can begin to assess the particular environmental impacts of those
inputs and outputs. An eco-balance therefore enables a firm to undertake the comprehensive
environmental review of its activities required by ISO 14001 and EMAS and to go on and set targets for
improving its environmental performance.

Environmental Labeling - Environmental labeling schemes award an environmental label to those

products that are judged to be less harmful to the environment than others within the same product
group.

Environmental Reporting - Having undertaken various environmental management initiatives to improve

its environmental performance, ICAD wish to communicate the results of these initiatives to the outside
world.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) It is a tool used to identify the environmental, social and
economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making. It aims to predict environmental impacts at an
early stage in project planning and design, find ways and means to reduce adverse impacts, shape
projects to suit the local environment and present the predictions and options to decision-makers. By
using EIA both environmental and economic benefits can be achieved, such as reduced cost and time of
project implementation and design, avoided treatment/clean-up costs and impacts of laws and
regulations.