5 Facts about Quality Management Systems

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To ensure quality is consistent across the board no matter what, most organizations employ quality management systems. Here are five facts about quality management systems.

1. Importance

Quality management systems such as ISO 9001 are quite important for several reasons. They help you to learn about, meet and, if necessary, develop various standards. You need to ensure compliance with various standards so your customers will be able to find and understand the information or other things they need. You can also use them to improve various processes, create training programs, engage your employees and set the direction you want your company to move in.

2. Standards

The term standards refers to the requirements your organization must meet in order to maintain compliance with industry, national or international quality expectations. You need to choose a quality management system that will support and ensure your compliance with your industry’s or location’s standards. Some quality management systems provide support for many types of international organizations. Others are highly specialized, only supporting the standards of certain industries, such as automobiles, environmental management, accounting or medical supplies.

3. Management Principles

You may encounter different management principles depending on which system you use and which standards you must comply with. However, there are some that are common or omnipresent principles you should follow or implement no matter which system you use or which standard you’re following. These include leadership, process and system approach, customer focus and continual improvement. You may incorporate these or other management principles, or develop your own.

4. Implementation

When you choose a quality management system, you must ensure the one you choose is capable of meeting your company’s needs and those of your customers, however unique they may be. The ISO 9001 certification process is best planned in several steps. First, you need to confirm the quality policies and objectives you will need to comply with and that you can customize the system to fit your needs. Then, you need to plan the implementation out and begin the designing and building process for all the programs and applications you’ll need. Next, you can deploy it. Finally, you’ll need to provide adequate training and access to the manual and quality management system to your employees. After implementation is complete, you should schedule periodic audits to review and measure various aspects of your quality management system so you can update, improve and control them as needed.

5. Benefits

The main benefit of utilizing a quality management system is to improve every aspect of your company’s and employees’ performance quality. It does this by ensuring your organization meets the needs of your customers and the requirements or standards of your industry. A quality management system provides several other benefits as well, including assisting the consistency of your results, reducing costs, improving your organizational communication and preventing or mitigating errors and other issues.

These systems work much like any other type of management system. You can use them to follow and implement industry, national and international standards, and to provide employees with the tools they need to meet these standards.