Quality Management is one of the prime movers that drive a company towards maintaining high ethical standards and have a disciplined way of working towards resolving issues.
The baseline that is responsible for the foundation of the quality system is the ‘Mission Statement’ and ‘Vision Statement’. There has been an ambiguity about the mission and vision statement. A mission statement states the goals and purpose of the organization currently. A vision statement addresses the futuristic goals that the organization is pursuing to achieve and the services it wishes to offer. Both the statements guide quality of an organization and must be aligned with the strategic and business goals of the organization.
This mission statement and vision statement is the ground rule under which an organization operates. Based on the current and futuristic goals outlined by the mission and vision statements, brainstorming of potential quality policies and objectives is done. There will be few not significant and some might duplicate. It is important to funnel down the significant quality policies and objectives.
Based on the quality policies and objectives, two arms of the quality management come into existence. The two arms are the Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) systems. Quality Assurance refers to the planned system of reviewing and monitoring the quality of the organization. This involves reviews and verification done by independent third parties. Quality control refers to the activities used to verify compliance with the technical and administrative requirements of the protocol under which the operations are performed. There are several quality control tools used to analyze and interpret data graphically and statistically.
Then, the supplementary quality documentation, popularly known as the ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ (SOPs) are documented.
Establishing this portion of the Quality Management System (QMS) is a key ingredient for organization’s integrity and operations. However, there is another piece that is important to complete this pyramid, ‘Right People for the Right Job’. Organization needs to have personnel with right attitude and competence to drive the operations and ensure the sustainability of the organizational effectiveness. The personnel need to be trained properly and adequately to perform the job. The training should be documented and future training goals for the staff should be updated by the management on a periodic basis.
Now, the pyramid is complete. To make this pyramid effective and vibrant, the management and the personnel are required to perform the following operations: (a) Internal audits (b) Management reviews (c) Generating corrective actions (d) Capturing preventive actions (e) Employee recognition and motivation.
Internal audit needs to be performed annually (minimum) by an organization to verify the compliance with the quality policies, procedures, internal and external requirements (standards/criteria). The operations of the organization need to be reviewed and effectiveness needs to be determined. It should be performed by independent, third party personnel.
Management reviews is performed after the internal audit. The issues noted during the internal audit and other actions pertinent to the organizational goals are discussed during the management review meeting.
Corrective actions are actions taken after a non-conformance is identified. Implementation and follow-up of corrective actions is mandatory for effective quality assurance. Preventive actions are actions taken before a non-conformance is identified. This can avoid penalties in future and unnecessary expenses. Preventive actions are stitch in time. As all know, ‘A stitch in time saves nine’.
Finally, employees need to be motivated by the management. The employees must be rewarded for outstanding work and appropriate recognition must be provided. This re-energizes the employees and builds trustworthiness of employees to the organization.
In summary, constructing a quality pyramid is quite a work. More importantly, ensuring the stability and efficiency of the quality pyramid can be accomplished only by periodic monitoring of the systems and review of the organizational performance.
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