Quality Management Principles in ISO

Quality Management Principles

 - Principle is a theory or rule that has a major influence on the way in which something is done.

 - “Quality management principles” are a set of fundamental beliefs, rules, norms and values that are accepted as true and can be used as a basis for quality management.

 - There are 7 Quality Management Principles associated with ISO 9001:2015.

 - As per ISO 9001:2015 these principles are reduced to 7 from 8.

1. Customer Focus

 - Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and try to exceed customer expectations.

- To understand customers current and future needs and expectations.

- Link the organization’s objectives to customer needs / wants and expectations.

- Plan, design, develop, produce, deliver and support goods and services to meet the customer needs and expectations.

- Measure and monitor customer satisfaction rating and take appropriate actions.

- Determine and take actions on interested parties needs and expectations which can affect customer satisfaction.

- Keep a balanced approach between satisfying customers and other interested parties.

2. Leadership

 - Leaders at all levels establish unity of purpose and direction and create conditions in which people are engaged in achieving the organization’s quality objectives and goals.

 - Communicate the organization’s mission, vision, strategy, policies and processes throughout the organization.

 - Promote a culture of integrity and trust.

 - Ensure that leaders at all levels are positive examples for the people in the organization.

 - Providing the required resources, training and freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.

3. Engagement of People

 - The organization must have competent, empowered and engaged people at all stage to enhance the capacity to create and deliver value.

 - Communicate with people to promote understanding of the importance of their individual contribution towards organization growth.

 - Facilitation of open discussion and sharing of knowledge and experience.

 - Empower people to determine constraints to performance and to take initiatives without any fear.
 - Conduct surveys to know the people’s satisfaction, communicate the results, and take appropriate actions.

4. Process Approach

 - A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

 - Outline objectives of the system and processes necessary to achieve them.

 - Establish authority, responsibility and responsible ness for managing processes.

 - Identifying the interfaces of key activities within and between the functions of the organization.

 - Focusing on the factors such as resources methods, and materials – that will improve key activities of the organization.

5. Improvement

 - Improvement is an ongoing improvement related activity in an organization.

 - Educate and train individuals at all levels on how to apply basic tools and methodologies to achieve improvement objectives.

 - Ensure people are competent to successfully promote and complete improvement projects.

 - Establishing goals to guide and measures to track the continual improvement.

 - Making continual improvement of products, processes and systems an objective for each individual within the organization.

6. Evidence-Based Decision Making

 - Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information.

 - When the data reveals that an area is underperforming, it is important to take corrective actions to improve performance.

 - Determine, measure and monitor key performance indicators to demonstrate the organization’s performance.

 - Make all data needed available to the relevant people in organization.

 - Analyze and evaluate data and information using suitable methods.

 - Make decisions and take actions based on evidence, balanced with experience and intuition.

7. Relationship Management

 - The organization needs to identify and select suppliers (and other interested parties) that can manage costs, optimize resources and create value. When you are establishing relationships you want to collaborate to ensure that you are both focuses on continual improvement.

 - Determine and prioritize interested party relationships that require to be managed.

 - Establish relationships that balance short-term gains with long-term considerations.

 - Measure performance and provide performance feedback to interested parties, as appropriate, to enhance improvement initiatives.

 - Establish collaborative development and improvement activities with suppliers, partners and different interested parties.