QA & QC as one department?

Hi,

I appreciate if you could please advise about the following concern:

QA and QC department are segregated in many companies. I need a scientific proof that show they are related to each other and must work together as 1 department.

If you have any example or reference, I appreciate if you could please share.

Thanks  

Well they should definitely work together but they have two different perspectives on quality. Quality Assurance is process related, preventing quality issues and concerns by reducing variation of the entire process. Quality Control is product related, detecting inconsistencies in the product. Our Quality Control department turns over all their data from the lab to our Quality Assurance department. So QC gathers all the data in the lab and QA analyzes the data to find where in the process the inconsistency is coming from. 

That's interesting, is that the way in your part of the earth?

Our client companies have QA/QC as one department.

Most if not almost all companies have the two departments as one. Mainly due to the lack of understanding the difference between the two. AHJ basically summed up the difference. 

There are definitions of QA and QC in which they belong to Quality Management.

QA is the proactive quality management; or out-line or pre-/post-production.

QC is the active quality management; or in-line or in-process.

They may have the same equipment or procedures to work, but the usages of their outcomes (decision to be make) must be different.

Hope these help.