What is IS0 9001?
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WHAT IS A PROCESS?
Fundamental to the new ISO9001:2000 standard and many of the other new standards such as the ISO14001 environmental standard and health and safety standards is the concept of process. So, any introduction to these standards must really start by giving people an understanding of what is a process.
The definition of a process is really quite straightforward; a process is defined as an activity or series of activities that turn inputs into outputs in order to achieve a defined outcome.
If we think about this in relation to an organisation, typical inputs would be things such as raw material and customer requirements, usually in the form of orders and enquiries. Outputs would be the product and/or service provided to the customer. Activities within the organisation would be things like receipt of enquiry; order entry; purchasing of goods, manufacture of product, distribution of product and so on. In terms of what the objective of the process is, if you are interested in ISO9000:2000 then one of the key objectives
you must have is customer satisfaction as this is a key part of the standard. But most organisations also need to make some profit so that they can pay employees, shareholders, suppliers and invest for the future.
WHAT IS QUALITY?
The word quality has many different meanings, from inherent goodness, to technical specification. The ISO9001 standard defines quality as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. This can be explained in relation to a product or service as follows: inherent characteristics means the in built features of the product or service, degree means how well they are met, and requirements refers to customer, and. So, quality can be defined as how well the product or service meets customer
requirements, or in simple terms:
QUALITY = CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Deming developed a four stage cycle, Plan, Do, Check, Act, that defines the actions necessary to ensure good quality, and ongoing continuous improvement.
This cycle has been used as a key principle of quality management over the years.
WHAT IS A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?
Traditionally, many people thought that a quality management system was the documentation contained within a quality manual or other supporting literature within an organisation. However, this is only a small part of what a system is.
The word “quality” can be defined as customer satisfaction, so a quality management
system is a system for ensuring that customers are satisfied with the products and services supplied. However, very few organisations can afford to think only about satisfying customers, most have to ensure that they make profits so that they can pay employees, shareholders, suppliers, and invest in the future. So, to be effective, any management system must not only ensure customer satisfaction, it must also help the company achieve its other objectives, such as making profit.
A management system is best considered as everything that you need to help you achieve your business objectives: processes, resources, structure and information, that’s pretty well every aspect of your business.
The decision to implement a formal management system, using the frameworks available in International Standards, is therefore one at the heart of business strategy.
WHY IMPLEMENT A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?
There is no doubt that implementation of a formal, documented management system, and the registration that many companies seek to recognise that their systems have achieved acertain standard, can be a considerable investment in time and money, so why do so many organisations do it?
There are two main reasons why organisations implement formal systems: The first is that many customers demand that their suppliers are registered to a standard such as ISO9001. A standard defines a minimum set of requirements that a system must meet, and so registration indicates that the company has achieved that minimum standard. There are many different standards available on quality management systems, but
ISO9001 is the most well known and recognized worldwide.
If the supplier is not registered then they will not get onto the shortlist to tender for new business. The reason why customers think this way is that registration is a kind of guarantee of quality. Traditionally, companies with registered systems have performed better than those without. This does not mean that all companies without registration are bad, and vice versa of course!
The second reason is that implementing a formal system means that the organisation needs to examine every aspect of what it does, to try and improve things. This usually leads to better performance. Most companies that implement systems report that it does lead to better performance in the long run.
Tags: ISO 9001