Originally Posted by sonoronos
The unfortunate fact of Quality Control is that it is fundamentally limited by external limitations on the process. It is possible, for example, for the management, engineers, test and QA to all do a bang-up, perfect job, and the result still comes out shoddy.
The difficult part is being able to come out with a well-engineered, high quality product at a reasonable cost.
Quality is concerned with meeting goals, the question is who sets those goals? In some cases it's the customer, in some cases it's management. Sorry, more off topic rambling
The Engineers here won't like this, but Engineering and the specs they define drive the cost of a product - also manufacturing capability is a factor on cost drivers. The design also becomes the 'goal' for QA assessment. Quality Control is the inspection and capability of the process, Quality Assurance is the systems that are set and defined to assure success - Planning for success - that should be 'management's' goal...ISO says "Planned Arrangements" - a great idea...I always follow the thought that a failure to plan is a plan to fail...