Quality management is more important than ever. The well-known ISO certification is one of the many quality controls that quality managers face. What is quality management and what is the relationship between ISO and quality management? And how can CYS help you design your quality management system smarter? You can read all about it in this blog.
What is quality management?
The branch within management that focuses on achieving the highest possible quality of a product, production process, service or organization is called quality management. It is not a tightly defined field, but it is reflected in all parts of the organization.
What is the relationship between quality management and ISO?
The quality of processes, services and products can be assessed through measurements, checklists and controls. An example of quality control by an external certification body, is the well-known ISO certification.
The ISO Institute has developed international standards. When an organization meets a certain standard, it is entitled to a certificate that proves it. The certification agency visits regularly to determine through an audit whether the organization is still in compliance. ISO standards are not specific to one type of industry, but are applied internationally and industry-wide to organizations of any size.
Quality management and ISO 9001
The ISO Institute in Geneva has developed as many as thousands of standards. The ISO 9000 series is entirely focused on ensuring quality and effectively establishing a system that enables the assurance of that quality. The series begins with document 9000 which describes the fundamentals and definitions. Organizations seeking ISO 9001 certification must demonstrably (and permanently) meet customer requirements.
Quick quality measurement of your QMS
This blog is about quality management and the ISO standards that assess the quality of your quality system. Are you still here? Beautiful! Now we are curious about the quality of your quality system. Can it be smarter and more efficient? And what role does customer research play in this?
Let’s do a quick quality measurement! Answer the following three questions. (The more questions you answer “no,” the more work to do!)
- Are all organizational layers involved in measuring and improving quality?
- Do you do customer satisfaction and customer experience research?
- Are ISO checks and other measurements fully digitized?
Three pieces of advice for a smarter quality management system
Advice to question 1: Quality management belongs to everyone
CYS recommends involving all organizational layers in ensuring and improving quality. The organization must be set up in such a way that you can make continuous improvements at three levels: strategic, tactical and operational. Throughout the organization, from marketing to production.
Advice to question 2: Measuring quality is an integral and continuous process
When managing quality, it is essential to continuously look at business results (Voice of Business), employee engagement (Voice of Employee) and customer satisfaction (Voice of Customer). In all three areas, it is important to gather the right information. With CYS, you can easily integrate these measurements into your operations.
Advice to question 3: From digitizing, your ISO checks become very ‘easy’
You may be thinking, “Involving everyone? Take continuous measurements? But how? CYS’ software makes it all a lot easier. With CYS, you can digitize all your audits and checklists so you can focus on results and making improvements, which is what it’s really all about!
Summary
After reading this blog, you will not only have more knowledge about ISO and how to set up your quality management system even smarter. You also now know better what role CYS can play if you really want to take steps toward improvement. In the next blog – part 2 of this series – we will delve into the secrets of an automated ISO checklist.