Consider the following role definitions and responsibilities:
Firstly that the Accountable Manager is responsible for both the Quality and Safety Systems, the Quality System includes both elements of Quality Control and Quality Assurance, however these days we are starting to talk more about Quality Compliance (effectively Compliance and Assurance are the same).
Secondly that The Quality Assurance Manager is responsible for the auditing of all Compliance related elements of the organization system, both internal and external to the business.
- To deliver the Safety System we have a Safety Manager whose role is to essentially coordinate the entire process bringing together a level of understanding which allows the organization to deliver the required level of safety. The actual ownership of the Safety compliance rests with the business area owners in the same way they are responsible for Quality Assurance.
When we speak about Organisational Compliance we are talking about compliance with all external regulatory requirements together with the internal obligations driven by all “internal” company documentation, manuals and procedures.
The Quality Manager is required to head up the independent process for performing gap analysis (auditing for conformity) of the organisations documentation systems and processes. Any finding becomes a “discrepancy” and generates the need for “corrective action”.
- Quality Control on the other hand is the responsibility of the individual post holders and business area owners.
Quality Control is delivered through the development of regulatory compliant organisational procedures which are followed by suitably trained and competent organisational staff. Independently all QC processes should be audited by the QA process.
The organization has an inherent obligation to ensure compliance and this is further enfranchised by the obligation of the Accountable Manager “AM” to sign a statement accepting responsibility for the organization to remain in compliance with all mentioned requirements.
The Accountable Manager is not required to be a specialist in the way that the Post Holders are required to demonstrate specific background knowledge experience and competence to the regulator before being allowed to commence “Post Holder” Duties.
So we should share the understanding that one of the roles of the Post Holder is to protect the Accountable Manager by ensuring that all required compliance’s are satisfied in respect of the relevant business area, this requires the correct interpretation of Root Cause and the appropriate mitigation action.
Suffice to say an effective aviation quality and compliance system should generate few if any non-conformities during regulatory audits.
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Tags:
Quality and Safety, Quality Assurance, Accountable Manager, Quality Control, Safety System
