Quality Management and Chemical Engineering
Quality Management standards
What are the quality management standards?
Quality management standards establish a framework for how the Organization manages its core activities. It identifies an agreed way of doing something, either making a product, managing a process, or providing a service.
What are the quality standards?
Quality management standards are details of requirements, specifications, guidelines and characteristics that should consistently meet products, services and processes in order to ensure that:
• Their quality matches expectations (and expectations may be for all stakeholders)
• It is fit for purpose
• It meets the needs of users
Standards are an essential component of quality management systems.
Purpose of quality management standards
Companies use standards to meet quality requirements for their customers and for a variety of other reasons, such as:
• Ensure the safety and reliability of its products and services
• Compliance with regulations, often at lower cost
• Identification and control of internal processes
• Achieving environmental goals
Companies committed to following quality management standards are often more capable of:
- Increase their profits
- Reduce losses or costs across the company
- Improve their competitiveness
- Access to markets around the world
• Increasing consumer loyalty
Examples of quality management standards
The global standard-setting body is the International Organization for Standardization ISO creates documents that provide requirements, specifications, guidelines, or properties that can be used consistently to ensure the suitability of materials, products, processes and services for their purpose.
ISO international standards are a set of widely accepted quality standards in the world, ISO 9001:2015 defines the requirements of a quality management system that companies can use to develop their own quality agenda.
The standards for quality (ISO) include the following:
We have the most prevalent criteria:
• ISO/IEC 17025-Testing and calibration laboratories.
• ISO/IEC 27000-information security management systems.
Other criteria:
• ISO 14001 Environmental management.
• ISO 22000 Food Safety Management
• ISO 3166 country codes
• ISO 26000 Social Responsibility
• 31,000 ISO risk management
• ISO 50001 Power Management
• ISO 45001 Occupational Health and safety
• ISO 13485 Medical Devices
• ISO 37001 anti-bribery management systems
• ISO 19011 for audit management systems
• ISO/TS 16949 for automotive-related products.
The criteria can be very specific and apply to a particular type of product, or generally such as large-scale management practices.
The use of standards may be voluntary (by the company itself), but some categories of customers or stakeholders may expect it. Some governmental organizations and bodies may also require suppliers and partners to comply with standards as a condition for doing business. (e.g. exporting to some countries or conducting product inspections within specified criteria).
Standards can help you achieve best practices in a wide range of business activities, not just quality management. For example:
• Accessibility standards-can help make services or workplaces available to disabled users.
• Health and safety standards-can help reduce accidents in the workplace
• Information security standards-can help keep sensitive information safe.
• Food safety standards-can help prevent food contamination
• Environmental management standards-can reduce environmental impacts and waste
• Energy management standards-can help reduce energy consumption
Ways to improve quality
Compliance with the application.
Error tracking.
Invest in training.
Organization of quality cycles (a participatory management technique within the quality system within the company, where small teams (6 to 12) are usually formed voluntarily to identify and resolve a specific quality or performance problem).
Role of chemical engineer:
The chemical engineer in charge of quality either sets the standards or applies the standards or verifies their implementation it deals with the analysis of systems (manufacturing, production and development of software) at all stages, to improve the quality of the final products of these systems as goods or services.
In any firm that implements quality standards, the role of the chemical engineer is critical, may be responsible for quality Management (Quality assurance or quality control(QA&QC)) , he performs quality control tests in various industries, The analysis of raw materials and other elements involved in the production process, and the inspection of the final product, the engineer may play an important role if he worked among the external audit bodies on quality systems (Auditor /3rd Party), for example : TQM company, SGS, TQCSI .
Quality is applied through a commitment to strive to provide the best for the customers, the facility, or even the personnel involved.
The operations and services provided must follow the standards established by the quality system.
