“Quality assurance is bleak in India,” says Vishwanath

“We need to change the industry’s attitude towards quality. Quality has to be the responsibility of every employee of the organisation and not limited to QC department,” said Vishwanath.

Vishwanath defined quality to be a degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill customer requirements. He explained the difference between quality control and quality assurance approach. “While quality control has strong control after the product the produced, quality assurance focuses on preventive measures to eliminate defects and enhance quality and consistency. QC investigates what went wrong, while QA asks what can go wrong,” added Vishwanath.

According to Vishwanath, Japanese firms have discarded Quality Control approach a few years back and started using Quality Assurance, which is bleak in India. While giving instances of quality assurance in companies such as Cadbury and Nestle, Vishwanath, said, “Each and every stage of process is strictly supervised with Quality Monitoring Systems (QMS). QMS acts as a silent policeman. The philosophy is to  keep asking what can go wrong.”

The mantra, according to Vishwanath, is not to produce defectives. If defectives are produced, do not allow those to reach the customer. “Have a strong product control, if not, have a strong detection control,” said Vishwanath.

In his concluding comments, Vishwanath said, “Analyse your processes, even when product quality is good. Never relax; even if your product quality is consistent, evaluate the consistency."