Planning for Quality – Product / Service

Quality planning for production or service provision refers to the detailed planning that goes into assuring that the product or service you provide meets legal and customer requirements.

This process includes:

first understanding the requirements (what does the customer want, what laws apply),
thinking through the steps to deliver the product or service and any controls needed,
making sure you have the necessary resources (people, equipment, time, finances),
verification and rectification procedures.

Quality Planning for Standard Work

Where the work done and processes are fairly stable, planning for quality is performed for each process or product/service. Quality planning is incorporated into the operations processes and is likely to be documented in SOPs (standard operating procedures), work instructions, or collected together in an Operations Manual.

Lego make fabulous Work Instructions for building things, with step by step pictures. Search for them at www.lego.com

Here’s a detailed SOP for a completely different process: SOP for Care of evicted Pouch Young

Quality Planning for Complex & Variable Work – e.g. a Project Quality Plan

For highly variable and complex work like construction projects you would prepare a quality plan for each project. The Project Quality Plan sets out the requirements, acceptance criteria, the methods that will be used to ensure that expectations are met, and the resources needed.

The Project Quality Plan is to tell the customer how you will manage quality on their project, reassuring them you have systems in place to deliver on your promises. The information must be project specific, and will refer to site details, project activities, contract requirements and applicable codes and standards.

Typical contents include:

Scope of Work
Project Contacts
Deliverables and acceptance criteria
Resources:
Personnel and their key responsibilities, authorities
Subcontractors and how you will control their work
Equipment required for the project
Quality Control:
Verification activities
Monitoring
Inspections and Test plans
Audits
Managing Non-conformance & corrective actions
Information Control:
Communications Plan
Document Control
Change Management

Example project quality plans can be found online, e.g.,:

Major Road upgrade: ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/tta/sh121_cda/constr_qual_plan.pdf

Keep records!

No doubt your quality plan will include references to quality control records, e.g., forms to fill in, checklists to follow, measurements to be recorded or monitored, hold points & inspections, audits, reviews by senior personnel, etc.

These records are important evidence to demonstrate you have implemented your plan, and provide data for analysis and improvements.

More?

Have a look at planning for the quality management system