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Seven Principles of Quality Management
Quality Management System is the most widely used of all modern management systems. Organizations must develop a consistent, well-thought-out strategy for managing quality rather than relying on luck and hope to provide high-quality goods and services. The most well-known Standard in the world, ISO 9001, has over a million firms accredited globally. In addition, it gives businesses a disciplined approach to quality control and enables them to consistently deliver goods and services that meet and, whenever feasible, surpass customer expectations.
ISO 9001 is based on seven quality management principles and it aims to help organizations be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction.
PRINCIPLE 1 : CUSTOMER FOCUS
Focus on your customers and their needs
- Develop customer focus
- Gather feedback
- Improve process
- Strengthen performance
- Satisfy customers
Developing a strong customer focus is an excellent way of demonstrating your commitment to quality. Gathering customer feedback is key – whether good or bad – as this can help you spot non-conformities and improve your processes so your business can strengthen its performance even further.
As well as satisfying customers, your business should also consider the interests of other stakeholders, whether owners, employees, suppliers, investors or the wider community.
PRINCIPLE 2: LEADERSHIP
Develop a strong management team
- Develop a strong management team
- Clear vision
- Communicate
- Share knowledge
Increase employee motivation and productivity
Strong leadership means you have a clear vision of your company’s future. Communicating this vision effectively will ensure your whole team works towards the same objectives, giving your organization a shared sense of purpose. This can then help to increase employee motivation and productivity.
PRINCIPLE 3: ENGAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
Getting your team involved in the management system
- Get the team involved
- Make them contribute toward the process
- Share knowledge and experience
- demonstrate organizational commitment
- Improve quality
Management systems such as ISO 9001 are not just for senior management – everyone within your organization contributes to its processes. Openly discussing issues and sharing knowledge and experience with your team is key if you want to benefit from your quality management ISO fully. Therefore, it is essential that everyone in your company understands their role and feels valued for their contribution to its success. This will not only help you to achieve certification but will also demonstrate your organization’s commitment to improving quality.
PRINCIPLE 4: PROCESS APPROACH
Create a process culture
- Promote process-driven culture
- Manage process interaction effectively
- Achieve objectives
- Measure and evaluate
- Identify areas for improvement
The Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) principle of the ISO 9001 Standard will help you promote a process-driven culture across your organization. This is a proven way of ensuring you plan, resource and manages your processes and their interactions effectively.
By managing the different areas in your business together as a whole, you will be able to align operations for greater efficiency, making it even easier to achieve your objectives. Measuring and evaluating these interrelated processes will also help you identify improvement areas.
PRINCIPLE 5: IMPROVEMENT
Drive continual improvement
- Drive continual improvement
- Implement process
- Identify risks and opportunities
- Measure and monitor
- Improve business
Continual improvement is essential to the ISO 9001 quality management system and should be your organization’s core objective. Implementing processes for identifying risks and opportunities, spotting and solving non-conformities, and measuring and monitoring your efforts means you will find ways to improve and make your business even stronger.
PRINCIPLE 6: EVIDENCE-BASED DECISION MAKING
Base your decisions on facts
- Base your decision on facts
- Accurate and reliable data
- Make information available
- Communicate and improve
Accurate and reliable data is essential for making informed decisions. For instance, you need the right evidence to solve the root cause of a non-conformity. Ensure information is available to those who need it and keep communication channels open.
PRINCIPLE 7: RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Develop mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers
- Develop mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers
- Trust
- create value for both parties
Your suppliers can be a competitive advantage, but this requires a relationship built on trust. Creating lasting relationships with suppliers and other interested parties means balancing short-term financial gains with long-term, mutually beneficial strategies.
BENEFITS OF THE QUALITY PRINCIPLES
- Meet key requirements of Standard
- Help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Increase employee motivation and productivity
- Use of resources
- Continually strengthen the process
- Improve cost efficiency
- Enable to build market share
- Expand new opportunitiesÂ
Implementing these seven quality principles during your ISO 9001 certification process can help you meet the standard’s key requirements. This will help you improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, increase employee motivation and productivity and use resources.
Continually strengthening your processes will also help you to improve your cost-efficiency and enable you to build market share by responding rapidly to new opportunities.
