If you are contemplating a career as a quality professional, one of your first tasks is to know what a quality management system (QMS) is and why your organisation should use one.
You will find that the field of quality management is brimming with jargon for example phrases such as “total quality management”, continuous improvement and “six sigma” can be confusing and make it difficult to understand precisely exactly what you need to know.
Therefore, the aim of this article is to clearly explain what a QMS is, some of the key terms and why every company should use one in its business operations:
Let’s start with what a QMS is. A QMS is a documented set of procedures and processes that help businesses to meet customer needs and expectations by ensuring the effective achievement of organisational objectives.
A QMS helps to coordinate and direct an organisation’s activities to meet customer and regulatory requirements and improve its effectiveness and efficiency on a continuous basis.
Implemented and maintained quality management systems have the power to affect all aspects of an organisation’s performance.
It will include:
ISO 9001:2015 is the latest version of the ISO 9001 standard. It’s also known as the world’s most widely recognised QMS standard.
The 2015 ISO 9001 standard is simply a revision of its 2009 counterpart. There are no significant changes to the requirements or structure of the standard—it’s still broken down into five parts:
Part 1: Management system requirements
Part 2: Planning quality management system
Part 3: Performance evaluation of the quality management system
Part 4: Documentation requirements
Part 5: Guidelines for conformity assessment
The 2015 version of the ISO 9001 standard is more accessible and easier to understand than previous iterations. It’s also designed to help companies focus on improving processes that are critical to quality—and not just compliance.
In order to outline the basic requirements all quality management systems should possess, ISO/TC 176, the international organisation responsible for maintaining ISO’s quality management standards, developed the seven principles of quality management as the basis for ISO 9001 certification.
The customer is the most important stakeholder of an organisation, and we must keep them at the centre of its activities. All work in an organisation should satisfy customers’ requirements by focusing on their needs, wants, and expectations.
Leadership is essential to any organisation’s success. It is a key factor in how organisations are run, who they hire, what they produce, and how they interact with their customers. In this context, leadership refers to those individuals with power over others’ actions within an organisation (e.g., managers).
Leadership is not just about the people at the top; it’s also about all members of an organisation being leaders as well by setting examples for others to follow through with their behaviour and actions.
The engagement of people is a key concept in quality management. It’s about having the right people on board, supporting them with training and coaching, and ensuring sure they’re motivated to contribute their best efforts to the organisation.
A process approach to quality management emphasises the importance of identifying and developing processes to achieve the desired outcome.
Processes should be repeatable, measurable, and controllable by those who have authority over them to improve efficiency moving forward (i.e., if something goes wrong).
A good process also helps identify problems quickly so we can solve them before they become more significant issues later on down the line—this is especially true for large projects with many people involved!
This principle is self-explanatory, but it’s important to mention that improvement is a continuous process, not an event or a single point in time. Improvement is based on data and analysis, both of which require careful planning and analysis by those responsible for the quality management system.
It’s also important to note that continual improvement isn’t just a top priority—it’s a shared responsibility between all levels within an organisation (from executives to frontline workers).
It is impossible to overstate how vital data is to decision-making. To improve processes and make better decisions about moving forward, you need to collect data from your QMS and perform analyses to provide insights into the current state of the process.
However, evidence-based decision-making is a continuous process that must be built into any QMS; it’s not something you will ever achieve perfectly at once.
Relationships are everything when it comes to quality management in organisations.
It is essential for organisations seeking ISO 9001 certification to follow the principles outlined above when designing their quality management programmes.
Certification under this standard shows that an organisation has achieved certain levels of performance in areas such as:
To achieve ISO 9001 certification, you will have to prove undoubtedly to auditors that your QMS meets the standard’s key elements and requirements. Having developed and maintained ISO-compliant systems for our clients for more than 25 years, we can assist you if you need help.
There are many reasons for having a QMS, which can be divided into two categories: internal and external.
Internal reasons include:
External reasons include:
There are many benefits to implementing a QMS. Some of the major benefits include:
If your company is looking for a way to improve its processes, then it’s clear that you should implement a process-based QMS. It can help you maintain high standards of best practices in your business and keep up with changing customer requirements.
The Agility System software supports the need to be both ISO-compliant and process-based. Our business analysts can help transform the current traditional system into an ISO 9001-compliant quality management system that provides improved operational performance and maintains compliance.
Book your free demo today, and a member of our team will be in touch to discuss your bespoke business needs and help you begin your journey to a process-based approach.
Discover the definitive guide to document control for ISO 9001:2015, providing in-depth insights into the key components, implementation strategies, and technological tools to streamline your quality management system.
The importance of the process approach to quality management and the steps you can take towards implementation.
The ISO 9001 standard is one part of the group (or “family”) of ISO 9000 standards. This ISO family is focused on Quality Management Systems (QMS) that help organisations “ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements and that quality is consistently improved.”
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