Business Management And Leadership - Controlling (U5DB) - Essay Example

Memo Supervisor 05/27/08 Re: Continuous improvement versus quality control Message: “Continuous improvement, in regardto organizational quality and performance, focuses on improving customer satisfaction through continuous and incremental improvements to processes, including by removing unnecessary activities and variations” (Free Management Library, 2008). The basic idea behind this particular management concept is that it is better to make small, continuous improvements within an organization rather than waiting until a big problem develops and taking on a huge improvement project.

“Quality control is a process employed to ensure a certain level of quality in a product or service. It may include whatever actions a business deems necessary to provide for the control and verification of certain characteristics of a product or service. The basic goal of quality control is to ensure that the products, services, or processes provided meet specific requirements and are dependable, satisfactory, and fiscally sound” (WiseGeek, 2008). The basic idea that lies behind the concept of quality control is to continuously ensure that the best products and services possible are being produced by an organization.

It is difficult to choose between these two particular management processes, as they are not mutually exclusive. It is indeed possible to perform both functions at once within an organization. However, if forced to choose between the two, I would pick continuous improvement, as that process involves quality control by the very nature of its design. Continuously striving to improve processes before a large problem develops will involve taking a serious look at production processes that include functions such as quality control.

ReferencesContinuous improvement. (2008). Free Management Library. Retrieved May 27, 2008, from http://www.managementhelp.org/quality/cont_imp/cont_imp.htmWhat is quality control? (2008). WiseGeek. Retrieved May 27, 2008, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quality-control.htm