Follow
A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on continuously meeting customer requirements and increasing their satisfaction. It is linked to an organization’s objectives and strategic direction (ISO 9001:2015). It is expressed as organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information and the resources required to implement and maintain it. Early quality management systems emphasized the predictable results of an industrial product production line using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labor inputs were typically the most expensive inputs in most industrialized societies, so the focus shifted to team collaboration and dynamics, especially early signals of problems through a continuous improvement cycle. In the 21st century, QMS tend to be integrated with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor and customer satisfaction and perceived quality are increasingly tied to these factors. Among QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is perhaps the most widely applied worldwide – ISO 19011 applies to both audit regimes and deals with quality and sustainability and their integration.
Other QMS, such as Natural Steps, focus on sustainability issues and assume that systematic thinking, transparency, documentation, and diagnostic discipline will reduce other quality problems.
The term “Quality Management System” and the acronym “QMS” were coined in 1991 by Ken Croucher, a British management consultant working to design and implement a generic model of a QMS within the IT industry.
Elements of QMS
=>> Quality objectives
=>> Quality manual
=>> Organizational structure and responsibilities
=>> Data management
=>> Processes – including purchasing
=>> Product quality leading to customer satisfaction
=>> Continuous improvement including corrective and preventive action
=>> Quality instrument
=>> Document control
=>> Employee training and engagement
=>> Supplier quality management
