Implementing quality systems

01_Introduction
A quality material, product, process, service or system is one that meets the needs of customers. Today, customers, including consumers, know what they want and can easily recognise ‘quality’. Businesses interact with a variety of customers e.g. • Internal e.g. staff who have their office cleaned, or use the canteen • Business e.g. suppliers of raw materials, stationery, transport, telecommunications • End users e.g. other firms, the government or its agents, or the general public (buyers of goods or services). Many businesses trade at local, national and international levels. To win customers’ confidence, firms need to meet the highest quality standards. Distant and local or national
carrying out market research to identify customer needs, conducting a customer satisfaction survey to monitor the existing service • determine the sequence and relationship between these processes • identify methods to ensure these processes are carried out well • make resources and information available to run these systems well • measure and record how well systems run • carry out actions needed to achieve planned results, and to ensure continual improvement. To achieve ISO 9001:2000 a company must show that top managers are committed to the quality system and regularly communicate with all of the organization’s members about the system’s importance. A vital part of developing the quality management system is to plan and deliver training about quality issues throughout the organization. The company must also register with a registrar (a body like BSI) who visits and assesses the company’s quality management system (QMS) and, if satisfied, issues an appropriate certificate. Follow up visits are carried out to ensure the processes in place are continually revised and improved.

One most important aspect of BSI’s work is helping organizations to develop management systems which meet the ISO 9001 standard. This involves setting up systems to ensure that processes are customer focused. It also requires a company to improve its quality management system