I recently pondered on the application and usefulness of a quality program and wondered how can people establish a quality program without any guidelines or manual that gives clear directions as to what upper management aims to do.

So how do I start a quality program and why?

For one I think that a quality program is an in house program that aims at improving all of the processes in place to reduce waste, wasted time, wasted labour, wasted $$ and mostly wasted input from the expertise of the people in place doing the job.

So how do we start a quality program?

You're referring to a 'quality control' program?

sftac

 Yes, I am referring to a quality control program.

It all depends. What specific industry (or area of functionality) are you referring to? Different areas of cuntionality have different standards and methods of measurement. For instance, the quality goals of manufacturing industry are entirely different from those of a service industry. In most cases, apart from reducing wastage, quality control is also expected to ensure consumer delight. What goes into a specific QC programme really depends on several specific factors.

Yes, that sounds about right.

sftac

Perhaps my question was too vague and it was intentional as did not want to pinpoint any specific area of work as this approach limits the discussion to the selected area.

Let me rephrase my question by asking what elements does a quality program need to have to be effective.

I will accept measurement a one element and for this item my questions are: when to measure, that is at what process stage do measurement start, do we measure everything or do we use a statistical sample and what do we do with the measurements?

I suggest you borrow a book from your public library in your native language that discusses quality control in businesses.  There may be a variety of articles and discussions on the internet you could find through google.

sftac