Role of QA and QC quality department functions

The quality department plays an important role in any manufacturing organization, but what do quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) professional do? And how does their role tie in with continuous improvement?
Believe it or not, but the quality department might be the most CI department in your organization. But unfortunately it doesn't always feel like that in practice, with quality specialists "slowing down the pace of change" or CI specialists "waltzing through our carefully laid out ISO system." Enough reason for our departments to get to know each other's roles and strengths...
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