What Are the Seven Principles of Quality Management?

According to the ISO 9001:2015 standard, there are seven principles of quality management. Our teams of specialists can assist you in obtaining this certification. These principles are:

• Customer focus
• Leadership
• Engagement of people
• Process approach
• Improvement
• Evidence-based decision making
• Relationship management

We haven’t numbered these management principles. Each will have a different priority according to an individual business’s nature and focus. Still, using these seven principles is the basis of a sound quality management system (QMS). Also, an ISO 9001 2015 certification lets customers know that you’re committed to quality. Effective quality management leads to customer satisfaction. We have put together a brief summary of these principles for you. 

Customer Focus

As the title suggests, this aim is to focus on both direct and indirect customers. Your goal is to meet customer requirements and exceed them. The focus is on netting sustained success by focusing on customers’ needs. Providing value-added services at every stage is vital. Customer focus means you need to manage customer relationships and watch customer satisfaction. Encourage your staff to talk to customers and find out what their needs are. You can then tailor your objectives to meet their needs. 

Leadership

The aim of leadership should be to establish unity of purpose. By doing this, your leaders improve effectiveness and efficiency within your company. Leadership comes down to communicating your business’s quality objectives. Effective communication from leadership is vital. It aligns your company’s vision, direction, and policies to achieve its aims. Share your commitment to quality with your people to inspire and encourage them. They’ll then contribute to your ethos of quality. 

Engagement of People

The ISO 9001:2015 statement reads: 

“Competent, empowered, and engaged people at all levels throughout the organisation are essential to enhance its capability to create and deliver value”. 

By engaging and empowering people at all levels, you encourage them to thrive. A thriving workforce adds value to their organisation’s quality management. You can meet this goal by talking to your staff and affirming employees’ contributions to your business. 

Process Approach

Quality management systems consist of several different processes working together. Appoint people to develop and oversee these processes to be effective. Ensure that everybody understands the objectives and knows what the end result should be. Share information to help the continual improvement of your quality management. The process approach aims to provide consistent and predictable results. Consistency enhances customer confidence in your ability to deliver. 

Improvement

Focus on constant improvement by responding to market changes and customers’ changing needs. Gear all your quality systems toward finding new ways to do things and make the services or goods you provide better. An organisation that loses the ability of continual improvement loses business. Avoid resistance to change. Something that worked 10 years ago may not be relevant today. Your organisation needs to evolve and improve to remain competitive. 

Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Ensure that your people base their choices on the gauging of on-hand data and information. Make relevant data available to the decision-makers in your organisation, encouraging objectivity. Having access to reliable data allows for an improved decision-making process. Also, it helps with your company’s capability to review and change decisions or opinions. It also allows you to determine past decisions’ effectiveness. To make this possible, you need to train staff to study and test data and information that passes through their hands. 

Relationship Management

ISO 9001:2015 focuses on relationship management with suppliers and partners. Expand this to include clients. The idea works on the theory that you need to have a good relationship with all interested parties. You need a good rapport with partners for them to supply you efficiently when activities overlap. By pooling information, expertise, and resources, you benefit all parties involved. A good relationship with suppliers results in an effective and efficient supply chain. 

Conclusion

These seven principles constitute the baseline for QMS in any organisation. Conduct internal audits to determine whether your company follows these principles. Remember that different activities and organisations have differing requirements. Decide on your company’s core business needs and tailor the QMS to the circumstances. Test the salient data and information to decide on the shape of your quality management strategy. Understanding these principles helps in setting up a QMS that works for you.