# name
Practical Quality Control: the Experiences of a Public Health Laboratory

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
In the 1930’s W.A. Shewhart pioneered the application of statistical principles to the quality
control (QC) of production processes, eventually publishing the landmark book “Economic
Control of Quality of Manufactured Products” (Shewhart, 1931). In this book, he states that a
phenomenon is under control if its future variation can be predicted (within limits) based on
previous experience. This is precisely the idea behind the control charts used in
measurement processes—specifically, for chemical analysis. The International Organization
for Standardization (ISO), in its standard ISO 9000 (ISO, 2005a), defines quality control as
“the part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements”. According to
the standard, quality management also includes quality planning, quality assurance and
quality improvement. The above definition is rather vague, because quality management
systems based on the ISO 9000 family of standards can be applied to any kind of
organization regardless of its field of activity, its size or whether it is from the public or
private sectors. Testing laboratories typically distinguish between internal and external QC.
In this context, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC, 1998) gives
a definition of internal QC that is well-suited to an analytical laboratory: “the set of
procedures undertaken by laboratory staff for the continuous monitoring of operation and
the results of measurements in order to decide whether results are reliable enough to be
released”. Although the aforementioned document does not formally define external QC, it
does mention that external control may be done by submitting blind samples to the
measuring laboratory. This activity can be organized in the form of a collaborative test...

# metadata.dc.rights[].value
cc by (c) Centrich, Francesc et al., 2011

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Llibres / Capítols de llibre (Enginyeria Química i Química Analítica)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Practical Quality Control: the Experiences of a Public Health Laboratory