Why implement a Quality Management System?

As a consultant who makes the majoriety of his living implementing ISO-9000, TS-16949, ISO-14001 and AS-9100 Quality Management Systems, I continually get asked by management "what is in it for me?" , "why should I spend money on the "if come?", "What benefits will I get", "Can I charge more money for my products/services?".

I get those questions all of the time and they are very relevant. I'm not here to try and convince you that simply implementing any of the standards will immediately make your company successful. What I will try to show you is what I consider to be a system that provides management with the best opportunity to become successful IF management believes in the value of change and is willing to implement and use the system.

What all of the current standards offer is a basic guideline for the development of a quality management system. In my opinion, the cornerstone of any business system is the absolute belief that a business is made up of many inter-connected and linked processes. These processes, when managed effectively and efficiently, can provide the business with the opportunities to reduce waste and non-value added costs, while providing a basis for continuous improvement within all segments of the business.

Managements role, as defined in ISO-9004 states that through leadership and actions management can create an environment where people are fully involved and in which a quality management system can operate effectively. Management needs:

• to establish and maintain quality policy
• to identify process performance goals and objectives.
• to promote the quality policy and objectives throughout the organization to increase awareness, motivation and involvement.
• to ensure focus on customer requirements.
• to ensure appropriate processes are implemented to ensure customer requirements and company objectives are fulfilled.
• to ensure an effective and efficient Quality Management System is established, implemented and maintained to achieve the identified objectives.
• to ensure availability of resources.
• to decide on actions regarding the quality policy, quality objectives and continuous improvement of the management system.

Management must first establish and communicate the company Quality Policy, in order to provide a common focus for the organization. The Quality Policy provides a framework for the establishment and review of the quality/business objectives.

Management must then define and understand the business processes. This is easily accomplished through the development of the Business Process Map (flowchart). What I have found during my years of consulting in many different companies and industries is that all companies have basically five processes.

1. Business Planning / Management Review
2. Sales / Quote
3. Quality Planning
4. Manufacturing or Provision
5. Measurement and Analysis

Each of these "key" processes have one or more sub-processes that come together to define that particular key process.
Once management has defined the key processes the next logical step is to ask "How do I know if each of the key processes are effective and efficient? What can and should be measured that will provide the appropriate performance data that allows for an accurate analysis and lead to actions to improve the process?
The quality / business objectives that the management identifies needs to be consistent with the Quality Policy and the identified process objectives must be reasonable, measureable and achieveable. According to the standard, "The achievement of the quality objectives can have a positive impact on product quality, operational effectiveness and financial performance and thus on the satisfaction and confidence of interested parties".

Where should management start? As your company moves forward with your planning for your Quality Management System (QMS) development, it is important to become familiar with three clauses contained in the ISO-9000 standard. These clauses are, 4.1 General Requirements,7.5.1 Control of Production and Service Provision and 8.2.3 Monitoring and Measurement of Processes.

Clause 4.1 General requirements describes the establishment of a QMS. The requirements in this clause identify the need to identify the business processes through the development of a business process map which, when done correctly, shows both the sequence and interaction of the processes.

Clause 7.5.1 Control of Production and Service Provision describes the process for implementing controls for the processes. The organization must "plan, carry-out production and service...under controlled conditions". 


Clause 8.2.3 Monitoring and Measurement of Processes requires that the organization must apply suitable methods for monitoring and measuring all of the QMS processes with the goal of demonstrating the ability of the processes to achieve the identified goals.

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