Why Quality Matters
Humans make mistakes and a quality management system is there to capture these mistakes and ensure consistent quality. Even though I am an experienced Service Manager, I am still human. I recently tweeted about my new book Outsourcing: A Practical Service Manager Guide to IT Outsourcing and included a link to a well-known bookstore that returned a 503 error. I updated the link and thought nothing of it until I received this …
An email titled ‘Using Automation to Knock Down Barriers’ that started ‘Hi <firstname>’.
Now maybe it is just me, but it did two things. Firstly, it put up a barrier to reading the rest of the article and secondly it reminded me of the American animated series Futurama and the liquor swilling robot Bender who for me has always personified bad RPA.
When i had finished chuckling, I reflected upon the lack of a quality management system (QMS) that I should have had in place to capture these types of silly errors.
A Quality Management System is a set of business processes, implemented to ensure an organization deliver products which consistently high levels of quality and achieve customer satisfaction. An effective system for managing quality will translate your organisation’s purpose and goals into policies and resources ensuring every member of the company adopts standard operating procedures (SOPs) that deliver consistent results.
A good quality management system will also deliver a framework for continual improvement and evidence based decision making.
International standard ISO 9001:2015, includes a series of quality principles which are frequently reflected in other QMS standards:
- Customer focus
- Leadership
- Engagement of people
- Process approach
- Continuous improvement
- Evidence-based decision making
- Relationship management
Quality Management System Customer Focus
The primary focus of quality management is to meet customer requirements and to strive to exceed customer expectations.
Leadership
Leaders at all levels establish a single view of purpose and direction and create conditions in which people are engaged in achieving the quality objectives of the organization.
Engagement of People
It is essential for the organization that all people are competent, empowered and engaged in delivering value. Competent, empowered and engaged people throughout the organization enhance its capability to create value.
Process Approach
Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.
Quality Management System Drives Improvement
Successful organizations have an ongoing focus on improvement.
Evidence-based Decision Making
Decisions based on the analysis and evaluation of data and information are more likely to produce desired results.
Quality Management System Drives Relationship Management
For sustained success, organizations manage their relationships with interested parties, such as suppliers.
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