QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ISO 9001 EXPLAINED

Quality Assurance Standard for ISO 9001

Quality assurance standard is a written set of instructions and guidelines followed by various industries in order to maintain the quality of their products or services. Big as well as small businesses adopt these quality standards worldwide and get certification after audit from the authorized body that ensures the company and its manufacturing or service delivery steps and procedures are in compliance with the laid down standards and polices. This certification enhances the brand value of the organization, its products or services and it also instills confidence in the customers. 

Some QA standard documents are industry specific while some apply to all organizations. One such universal standard that applies to all types of organizations is ISO 9001.

What Is ISO 9001

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO standards for quality are

recognized worldwide and hence ISO certified organizations have far better opportunities to trade in the international market. ISO 9001, Quality Assurance Standard can be followed by any kind of industry, whether it is service or manufacturing industry. 

Each organization should develop its own Quality Management System (QMS) in order to adhere to ISO 9001 guidelines. To get ISO 9001 certification, the organization has to undergo three audits. The first audit is conducted by the quality monitoring and inspection professional from within the organization i.e. internal auditor. The second such audit is conducted by the customers using the product or service in question, and the third audit is conducted by the organization that is authorized to grant ISO certifications for quality maintenance.

Benefits of ISO 9001 2015

The ISO 9001 standard was first published in 1987. The latest edition of the standard is ISO 9001:2015, which was released in September 2015. ISO 9001:2015 certification provides assurance of process transparency and accountability. For our future, it's a good indication that projects will be implemented according to standards and in good quality.

Systematic Approach

The standard helps the organizations to function in a more systematic manner. There are defined systems, processes, and procedures in the organizations to do each and every task. Teams are designated to perform these tasks. Hence, it results in more organized and systematic approach to work which improves employee satisfaction and retention.

Improved Quality

The systems are integrated in the whole organization to deliver good quality products or services. This leads to improved quality and less rework. All this helps the organization to reduce wastage and increase margins.

Customer Satisfaction

The customers trust the organizations that are ISO 9001 certified because this QA standard certification offers a sort or an assurance of the good practices and systems in organizations.

 When customers get good products or services in accordance to their requirements, their loyalty towards the organization increases. This results in more business for the organization. The profits of the organization also increase.

Increased Margins

Margins of the organization improve due to multiple effects. Some of the reasons for increase in margins are –
When good quality products or services are manufactured or delivered, there is very little rework and fewer customer complaints. This results in lesser wastage and hence increased margins.

Since according to the requirement of QA standard, there are set procedures, it results in greater employee satisfaction, which in turn results in greater productivity and improved margins. It also reduces the cost of training the employees.

Since organization gets more business, their margins improve.

Quality Assurance Guidelines for Improving Performance

Quality control guidelines are a written set of instructions that can help any business or organization achieve their target of quality and customer satisfaction. One such guideline is the international standard ISO 9004. The ISO 9001 standard of quality defines the requirements that an organizations quality management system needs to follow so that the organization can be certified. ISO 9004 gives q Quality Assurance Guidelines  that complement ISO 9001 and helps the organization achieve performance improvements. 

Even though ISO 9004 is not meant for the certification purpose, many organizations use its guidelines provided in this standard for achieving continual improvement.

Any business organization that wants to go beyond ISO 9001-quality management systems should seriously look at the quality control guidelines as enumerated in ISO 9004 and they should strive to implement them to improve their quality and performance. ISO 9004 gives clause by clause linkage to ISO 9001 i.e. it expands upon the requirements of ISO 9001 clauses and adds requirements that help in improving the performance of the organization. Each clause is further supported by examples to make it easy to understand.

Here are the eight principles on which the quality control guidelines are based

Customer focus – Everybody in the organization should understand the importance of customer focus and should work towards it. The customer means not only external customers but also internal customers. The organization should realize that they depend on customers and hence should do its best to meet and exceed customer requirements.

 Process approach – The entire business is a series of steps that form a process. People should understand the linkages and importance of each step to the final objective. This will help in reducing the entire cycle time for the customers.

Leadership - Unless leaders show commitment towards quality, the employees will not be motivated and hence the onus lies with the leadership. It is the responsibility of the leaders to give a clear vision of the targets and provide resources to achieve those targets. They should also inspire and motivate people by recognizing their achievements.

Involvement of People – Everybody should be involved and should be aware of what is expected from him/her in order to achieve customer satisfaction. This gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility.

Continual Improvement - This is different from continuous improvement in the sense that it expects the organization to achieve a quality level, maintain it consistently and then move up one level and so on. This helps the people in understanding the importance of continuous learning and also helps the organization in becoming more flexible.

Systems approach - The management is expected to identify the interrelated processes as one system with each process being important. This helps in improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization.

Factual approach - The decision making should be based on facts. The available data should be analyzed and according to the results of analysis, the decision should be taken.

Supplier relationship - It is important for management to realize the importance of a good supplier relationship. Both supplier and organization are mutually dependent and hence this relationship is very important for both.

 These principles form the framework for quality assurance guidelines around which the management of organizations should work in order to improve their performance and quality delivery.