Posts Tagged ‘Assurance’

What’s in a Quality Assurance Plan?

Friday, June 18th, 2010

If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ve most likely already heard about setting up a quality assurance plan. A lot of businesses, big and small, already have theirs in place. If you don’t have one yet, you might want to get started creating one.

The term is already an obvious giveaway to its definition. It implies the company’s thrust towards planning to produce and deliver products that are so good and effective that customers will almost always be satisfied. The individuals therefore who are assured are the ones who pay for what you sell.

Assuring customer satisfaction is therefore a relevant concept here. This is why you should also want to know why it is important. When you have a good quality assurance system that promotes satisfaction, you ensure the continued existence of your business. The more satisfied customers are, the more they’ll keep coming back to you. That means more income for years to come.

To make sure that you will always be able to churn out good products, you need to make sure that your plans are organized. The first step that you would always have to tackle in system creation is the identification of objectives. These should always be in line with customer needs and wants. You can get ideas of these through actual feedback.

Once you know what you need to concretely accomplish in a quality assurance program, the next step is to define roles and responsibilities. This simply means putting on the table who is in charge of what. All members of your team should be encouraged to ask questions to promote a thorough understanding of what is expected of them and what needs to be done.

The next step in planning is to create a structure or outline for coordination. Companies typically have several teams in charge of various standards and general responsibilities. It is a must for the team in charge of assuring product value to make sure that its system components and actions are in harmony with those of others. Otherwise, some points might contradict and make the accomplishment of objectives difficult.

Quality assurance plan task and schedule definition is the final planning step. This involves outlining what specific tasks need to be done and accomplished within a set time frame. This wraps up the brainstorming component in a comprehensive program and is followed by the phases that cover implementation, checking and action.

A good solid system actually does more than make customers happy. Companies can use their programs to their greater advantage to achieve ISO certification. Getting certified is an optional move for companies but you might want to apply for this to enjoy more benefits. It is generally known that certified companies are regarded even more highly by customers, business partners and other companies because of their having met international standards.

There is no doubt that you only stand to benefit from planning for a quality assurance system. Consistently providing good products or services is the only way you can convince customers that you are worth sticking it out with.

The Growing Life Assurance Protection Gap

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Life assurance industry experts always bang on about the ‘Protection Gap’. This is the difference between the levels of life assurance cover that we have taken out against the amount of cover that the industry believes we need. However, if the latest figure that has been produced by the UK life insurance experts is correct then, as a country we are massively underinsured as the gap stands at a whopping £2.5 trillion, and is growing every year.

We are mainly very good at ensuring that we have the mortgage covered by life insurance should the very worst happen, but it appears that we have totally forgotten all the other costs such as other debts, supporting children and even the mundane, such as living expenses. Of course, those with no dependents have no need of life assurance, but those who do should consider it very carefully.

Unlike most things today, the price of life insurance premiums has actually fallen. In fact, if you compare life insurance premiums to costs ten years ago, they are actually 50% cheaper, meaning that if price was a barrier for most people a few years ago then that situation has changed.

At this point, you may be jumping up and down saying that you are actually ten years older than you were and therefore even though premiums have dropped, because of your age it will still be more expensive. That is a common misconception. Because people are now living longer they pose less of a risk to life assurance companies, and that has helped drive premiums down. Plus, there is more competition meaning that those pressures also force down prices.

Re-visiting the level of your life assurance may also allow you to investigate additional benefit options such as critical life illness cover. Prices will also vary depending upon whether you opt for level term or decreasing term assurance. Level term, as its name suggests offers the same benefits in the case of death over a fixed period, whereas decreasing term reduces the benefits over the period, usually in tandem with your mortgage. As that is repaid, then the amount you would require in cover also reduces.

Recent research produced by the Daily Telegraph highlighted that almost one in three adults in the UK were found to have no life assurance at all. Even though statistically the vast majority thankfully will not require it, if the worst should happen then think of the financial impact on those left behind. Are you happy to live with your own Life Assurance Protection Gap?

What Type of Assurance Do Reviewed Financial Statements Provide?

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Often as a CPA I am asked to prepare financial statements for my clients. The basic purpose is to inform those that want to understand the finances of a business in a format that can be readily compared to other similar entities.

Reviewed financial statements provide a limited level of assurance that the statements meet the requirements of the US GAAP and are free of material misstatements or false or missing information. To perform the review, I will obtain a general understanding of: the organization’s industry as well as information about their operations, products, and services, their accounting records, qualifications of their accounting personnel, the accounting basis on which the financial documents are presented, and the form and content of the financial statements. Then I review the information supplied by the client and make specific inquiries relating to accounting policies, record keeping and accounting practices, actions of the Board of Directors, and changes in business activities. The specific inquiries required to perform a review should address the following areas: related party transactions; accounting policies, problems, and areas of greater risk; uncertainties, contingent, current and long-term liabilities and assets; qualifications of accounting personnel and division of accounting duties; inventory; any departures from GAAP; revenues, expenses, accounts receivable, cash and equity accounts, and investments; and property, plant, and equipment assets and liabilities.

As a Certified Public Accountant I must obtain a reasonable basis for expressing limited assurance about the nature of the financial statements. This means I will apply various analytical procedures to identify unusual items or trends in the statements that may need explanation. If any material errors or misstatements are noted, then I will discuss these items with the organization’s management for clarification or adjustments to the financial statements.

Upon completion of a review, I will issue a report that provides limited assurance that the reviewed statements are free of material misstatements or false/missing information and are found to be accurate, complete and fairly presented to meet the requirements of the US GAAP. Since the statements were reviewed and not audited, no opinion about their nature is expressed. The report also notes that the financial documents are a representation of management.

Quality Control Versus Quality Assurance – Is There A Difference?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

It’s not uncommon to hear the similar phrases quality control and quality assurance1 used interchangeably. This tendency, though a seemingly benign blunder, is actually a revealing reflection of an unhealthy quality management system.

What is quality control?

First of all, quality control is the “check” or the “end-of-the-immediate-task-at-hand” record or analysis that determines the acceptability or unacceptability of a product, a product plan, a product part, etc. Tasks related to quality control may include documented reviews, calibration, or additional types of measurable testing (sampling, etc.). Tasks related to quality control will reoccur more often than activities associated with quality assurance.

The Final Determination

Essentially, quality control is determined by the comparison of a product against the original specifications that were created before the product existed.

Who is involved with quality control?

Tasks related to quality control will usually require the involvement of those directly associated with the research, design or production of a product. An employee in charge of quality control related tasks is likely to report to his “local” department head and no further.

Quality Control Software: What functions should it perform?

Quality control software should be able to automate electronic “checks” and “tests” (best if done via a web-based system).

These checks may include the following quality control tasks:

• Customer complaints documentation.

• The record keeping of electronic forms or documents associated with step-by-step quality control processes.

• Forms routing.

• Automatic distribution and grading of training exams.

• Collaborative tasks.

What is quality assurance?

Quality assurance is more or less the determination of the processes that will determine the template and pattern of quality control tasks. Quality assurance assignments do not have to be measurable, although quality assurance evaluators will often use past experience or regulation as a guide for process determination.

The Final Determination

Essentially, quality assurance is determined by top-level policies, procedures, work instructions and governmental regulations.

Who is involved with quality assurance?

As opposed to quality control checks, quality assurance reports are more likely to be performed by managers, by corporate level administrators or 3rd party auditors.

Quality Assurance Software: What functions should it perform?

A quality assurance software solution should provide tracking and analytics (i.e. plus reporting features). A complete CAPA digital management solution is also a plus.

The most important function a quality assurance software solution however is flexibility and capability to be customized. After all, every quality assurance process determination will vary from company to company and a software solution should ideally be molded to the various needs of those companies.

The Importance of Distinguishing Quality Control from Quality Assurance Activities

It is important to treat the quality control tasks as separate from the quality assurance activities for the following reasons:

1) A product with continuous quality control checks may be entirely successful but the processes that govern those checks may still prove faulty (take too much time, too much revenue, etc.)

2) One person should not be performing both quality control and quality assurance assignments. Since quality assurance essentially controls the ebb and flow of quality control, having one person over both types of tasks is inherently a conflict of interest.

3) The two types of tasks are different. Why think about quality control and quality assurance as the same sort of process when quality control tasks are measured by specific details (i.e. numbers, specifications, etc.) and quality assurance activities are measured more by written policies, higher level work instructions or even by the opinions of management?

4) Some companies devote too much energy to quality control and some to quality assurance. Both processes must receive evaluation and management.

Conclusion

For life science and high-tech professionals an understanding of why quality control and quality assurance are important and how quality control and quality assurance tasks can best be accomplished are foundational building blocks for a strong regulated company.

1. [http://www.builderau.com.au/strategy/projectmanagement/soa/Quality-control-vs-quality-assurance/0],339028292,339191784,00.htm