Quality Management Systems

What are Quality Management Systems exactly?

Quality Management Systems (QMS) are the methods that organizations use to effectively provide customer satisfaction by meeting or exceeding customer needs. QMS standards, such as ISO 9001, have been jointly developed and agreed to by the international community as a baseline for all QMS.  Some industries have identified the need to further develop or refine the standard, resulting in industry specific requirements such as ISO/TS 16949 for the automotive industry, AS9100 series for the aerospace industry and the TL9000 series for the telecommunications sector.

Using a quality management system standard does not guarantee operational excellence, but it does provide a framework for developing a process-based management system requiring continual improvement to achieve excellence in customer satisfaction.

Quality Management System (QMS) can be defined as a set of policies, processes and procedures required for planning, execution, and continual improvement of production, design and development, service and other business processes of an organization. QMS integrates the various internal processes within the organization and intends to provide a process approach for project execution. QMS enables the organizations to identify, measure, control and improve the various business processes that will ultimately lead to improved business performance and enhanced customer satisfaction.

The International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 series describes standards for a QMS addressing the principles and processes surrounding the design, development and delivery of a general product or service. Organisations can participate in a continuing certification process to ISO 9001 to demonstrate their compliance with the standard, which includes a requirement for continual (i.e. planned) improvement of the QMS.

ISO 9000 provides guidance on Quality principles and on the common language used by quality professionals. ISO 9004 provides guidance on improvement methods. These ISO 9000 and 9004 standards are reference guides only. Certification is possible to ISO 9001 only.

National Quality System Schemes and Awards

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is a competition to identify and recognize top-quality U.S. companies. This model addresses a broadly based range of quality criteria, including commercial success and corporate leadership. Once an organization has won the award it has to wait several years before being eligible to apply again.

The Deming Prize is Japan's premier quality program and award. It is similar to the Malcom Baldridge Award in that an organization must consistently demonstrate excellence of its managment system, products and services. The prize is named after Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American, that was instrumental in bringing the ideas of quality management to the world.

The European Foundation for Quality Management's EFQM Excellence Model supports an award scheme similar to the Malcolm Baldrige Award for European companies.

In Canada, the National Quality Institute presents the 'Canada Awards for Excellence' on an annual basis to organisations that have displayed outstanding performance in the areas of Quality and Workplace Wellness, and have met the Institute's criteria with documented overall achievements and results.

The Alliance for Performance Excellence is a network of state, local, and international organizations that use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria and model at the grassroots level to improve the performance of local organizations and economies. NetworkforExcellence.org is the Alliance web site; browsers can find Alliance members in their state and get the latest news and events from the Baldrige community.

Why Is ISO 9001 Called A "Quality Management System"?

There is nothing wrong with the term quality as long as it is understood in the context of its definition shown in ISO 9000: "degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements." Inherent, as opposed to assigned, means existing in something, especially as a permanent characteristic."

Taking this definition, we can interpret the word quality to be synonymous with good or excellent. The phrase now becomes "Good Management System" and the intent and the focus of the requirements becomes much clearer.

The concept is simple: If a system and its processes are well managed, the product and service output will be good, Quality Input = Quality Output. 

More Than The Quality Department!

Unfortunately, in a majority of companies, the task and responsibility for implementing the standard and getting the certification was assigned to the Quality Manager. Hey, after all it is a "Quality" Standard and they ignore the "Management" word altogether.

I say unfortunately not because the Quality Manager was incapable of accomplishing the task, but because they are generally exceptionally capable. They get it done with minimal or no involvement from their top management team and the outcome is a certificate and a company with a negative capability to recuperate its investment in becoming certified.

ISO 9001:2008 attempts to address this common shortcoming in clause 5 titled "Management Responsibility" by using the phrase "top management". ISO 9000 defines top management as "person or group of people who directs and controls an organization at the highest level." Clause 5 spells out the specific responsibilities that top management must perform.

ISO 9001:2008 requires involvement of more than the Quality department. This improvement in the requirements of the standard has produced overall improvement in the organizations using it.

If you want additional information about this topic, click on the links below.

What are Quality Management Systems?

What is ISO 9000?

What is ISO 9001?

What is ISO 9004?

What is ISO 19011?

ISO 9000-2008 Changes

Online ISO 9000/9001 Overview Course

Auditor Training: Online

Auditor Training Courseware

Additional Resources