1. The purpose of a quality management system
The principles of quality management are:
Quality is achieved through conformance to defined specifications in terms of performance, price, and delivery and is not just limited to how a product or service looks or performs.
Customer satisfaction is achieved by understanding the customer requirements and using methods to ensure that these requirements are consistently met.
Controlling and improving processes are achieved through the use of documented policies, procedures, and continual improvement activities.
The ISO 9001 Quality Management System is a business system designed to make it easier for companies to comply with these principles.
The system establishes both the rules for identifying the customer requirements and the policies and procedures for providing organizations with the means for delivering products and services that comply with these requirements. It also creates a means for ensuring consistency, stability, and the continual improvement of the processes used in running a business. It's based on documentation and demands effective information management, operational discipline, and accountability.
The ISO 9001 Quality Management System was developed and is managed by an internationally recognized organization. The system was originally implemented in 1987, subsequently revised in 2000, and is currently used in over 130 different countries by over 350,000 companies.
2. The benefits of a system
An ISO9001 Quality Management System has the potential of providing several significant benefits, including:
Improved Profitability - Profit improvement results from more productive employees, better organization, better suppliers, better infrastructure, and systematic continual improvement programs.
Employees are more productive because the system establishes standards for hiring and training, requires employee involvement, and demands accountability.
Documented procedures create better organization, which promotes consistency and reduces the number of mistakes.
Qualification criteria, auditing procedures, and the use of performance measurements improves supplier performance.
Controls and policies placed on the management of the infrastructure including the buildings, machinery, tooling, software and hardware, and the general working conditions result in more reliable and better working conditions.
Corrective and preventive action programs and other continual improvement processes provide a mechanism for preventing problems from reoccurring, finding and fixing problems before they occur, and developing new and better ways of doing things.
If effectively implemented a quality management system can eliminate duplication and process variability, lower cycle times and inventories, and reduce both in-house and field failures.
Improved Customer Satisfaction - Customers benefit because:
Policies and procedures for managing process information, measuring instruments, and the verification and validation requirements result in better products.
Procedural changes and improvements in supplier performance result in better deliveries.
Changes in the way customer communication and product development are managed result in better customer relations.
Increased Sales - ISO 9001 certification is an internationally recognized accomplishment. It's a bragging right but more importantly it's a promotional opportunity. It opens doors to prospects that treat certification as a tipping point or a supplier requirement, and it's a means of letting your customers know that you comply with a set of internationally recognized management standards.
Improved Job Satisfaction - Job satisfaction improves because:
The system includes change processes that provide all employees with an opportunity to make a difference in how a company is managed.
There's comfort in knowing what you're responsible for doing, and
There's security in knowing that the system creates a more competitive position.
The instructions bridge interrelated responsibilities, which eliminates confusion and reduces conflict.
The key word to remember is "potential." The benefits don't come automatically and won't happen without a genuine commitment starting at the top, a system that is well composed and managed, and a long-term commitment.
3. The components of the implementation process
The three components of the implementation process are: 1) documentation, 2) information management, and 3) operational changes.
Documentation - On the surface it may seem that developing the ISO 9000 documentation shouldn't be that difficult. You must have a manual that includes a policy, objectives, scope, and the interaction of the processes; and you must have written instructions for:
1. Managing the quality system documents
2. Managing the quality system records
3. Conducting internal audits
4. Controlling nonconforming product
5. Implementing corrective action
6. Implementing preventive action
The standard also hints at the need for additional instructions, e. g. referring to the work instructions, section 7.1 states "shall determine the following, as appropriate," but technically, aside from the manual and these six instructions, anything more is optional.
The reality, however, is that in order to get the most out of a quality management system a great deal of additional documentation is required. A primary function of the system is to establish consistency and eliminate misunderstandings, which is best facilitated with clear and unambiguous written instructions. Policies, which are a pervasive part of any system, have absolutely no value if they're not in writing, and enforcing accountability is extremely difficult if the responsibilities are not spelled out.
Information Management - Extensive information management is another integral part of the implementation process. Just keeping track of all of the records associated with the quality system is in itself a daunting challenge. Then there are training records, records of all of the customer complaints, warranty claims, and past due shipments. There's also sales and purchasing records, traceability documentation, product development records, verification and validation records, incoming inspection records, and internal and external non-conformance records.
All of this involves gathering, managing, and analyzing information, which is an unavoidable requirement of the ISO 9001 standard.
Operational Changes - The final component of the implementation process is the operational changes, which are the changes needed in order to meet the procedural requirements of your system. These include such things as training, instrument calibration, housekeeping, product traceability, product preservation, managing nonconforming materials, auditing, and the implementation of the corrective and preventive action activities. It's not good enough to say what you're going to do, you actually have to do it.
System documentation and information management are the paperwork part of the system. The operational changes are the action part and represent the part of the implementation process that makes the system work.
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