mplementing A Quality Management System In Your Business by: Tony Connor

The process of implementing a quality management system should start with Senior Management composing a list of Customers and Potential Customers. Determining customer and potential customer’s expectations and requirements should be the next phase of the process of implementing a quality management system. Senior Management should
determine customer and potential customer requirements by market research and interviewing targeted customers to gain an understanding of their requirements.

Confirmation from the customer of the organisation’s understanding of their requirements should be obtained prior to proceeding.The requirements for the quality management system are ascertained from the market research and confirmed customer requirements and subsequently senior management should define the organisation’s policies.Based on the quality management system policies, senior management should then establish objectives for the company.

In order to achieve the predetermined objectives the senior management should then decide the quality management system processes that are required.For each of the quality management system processes , including customers and suppliers the team should then identify the inputs and outputs. E.g. the quality management system process product realisation could have inputs including planning, training, maintenance and IT Systems, and outputs to distribution and customer.

The next step is to describe the quality management system processes and their interaction, considering the supplier, customer, inputs and outputs of each process.The process sequences and their interactions can be displayed on flowcharts to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the sequence and show the timing of the sequence.Individual responsibilities for ensuring the implementation, maintenance and improvement of each quality management system process should be assigned by the senior management team. E.g. the Planning Manager would normally be the planning process owner with responsibility in the quality management system would be for implementing, maintaining and improving the planning process and interacting effectively with sales and production processes. The Planning Manager objectives should be in line with quality management system objectives for example 100% Accurate Production Plan.A management team including representatives from all the processes should be established to oversee the quality management system processes.

The process management team should then assess each quality management system process and determine any documentation required and the most effective method of managing the process.

Different methods of documentation can be used, the team should decide which is best to represent and comprehend the quality management system process. The process management team should then undertake a project implementing the quality management system processes and their activities as planned that including communication, awareness, training, change management, management involvement and review activities.

The team should now determine where and how monitoring and measuring should be applied both for control and improvement of the quality management system processes and the intended process outputs.Measurement is a powerful management and quality management system improvement tool, measure or monitor to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system process, taking into account such factors as conformity with requirements, customer satisfaction, supplier performance, on time delivery, waste, process costs, incident frequency. At this stage there should be corrective and preventative actions taken as per the documented quality management system procedure. This should include the identification and elimination of the root causes and potential causes of the problems such as defects or lack of adequate process controls.

Improvement opportunities for the quality management system based on the results of the analysis of process information should be determined at this stage.Finally, compare the results of your performance information with your defined requirements to confirm your quality management system is effective.