Differentiate quality control from quality assurance.

• A. Quality control tests outputs to detect defects; quality assurance is process-oriented prevention to ensure quality in production.
• B. Quality control tests processes; quality assurance examines final products.
• C. Quality control is about design; quality assurance is about marketing.
• D. Quality control is irrelevant in modern manufacturing; quality assurance is the same as quality control.

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is that quality assurance and quality control serve different roles in preventing defects. Quality assurance is about preventing defects by improving the production process—establishing standards, training, process audits, and ongoing improvement. Quality control is about verifying the final outputs by testing and inspecting products to detect defects before they reach customers. The best description matches this separation: QA focuses on process-oriented prevention, while QC focuses on product-oriented detection. The option that says QC tests processes and QA examines final products reverses these roles, so it doesn’t fit. Other choices misplace activities entirely (such as tying QA to marketing or design, or claiming QC is irrelevant or the same as QA).