Thursday, December 19, 2013

Essential Principles On Ideal Quality Management Systems

By Marcia Marks


Quality management systems, QMS are essential in the day to day operation of virtually any organisation. Without a QMS it will not be possible to appreciate growth with an organisation. Put simply, a QMS is set of policies, policies, manuals, the structure and responsibilities of an organisation together with its resources among others. There have been numerous improvements in the manner in which QMS are used. Today, unlike in the past, there is a lot of emphasis placed on team dynamics and cooperation.

A QMS process is an organisational element whereby compliance and certification are can only attained when given processes are clearly defined. Examples of such processes include calibration, production planning, and order processing, internal audit, corrective and preventive action. The most widely recognised QMS regimes of all time, the ISO 9000 employs quality, sustainability and their integration. Other QMS like Natural Step put emphasis on sustainability issues with the assumption that challenges will be minimised by transparency, systematic thinking, documentation and discipline.

Medical devices are manufactured based on established quality systems to ensure client satisfaction in terms of efficacy and safety. It is the responsibility of manufacturers to use sensible judgement when setting up QMS. Essential elements have to be employed in the design, production and distribution of a quality system. For instance, control of purchasing, personnel training and qualification, validating processes, product acceptance and documentation need to be be put into consideration.

Before designing a QMS the business needs to understand its environment. There is need to know what is expected of the business by the clients. The main objective of the process should be to fully meet the client expectations. The benchmark is to set the standards that are required by the clientele. Whenever the consumer demands change, the business is supposed to readjust accordingly.

The principle of leadership also needs to be applied to establish direction and unity of purpose in an organisation. One of the benefits of good leadership is that poor or lack of communication will be minimised. With this principle, the needs of all involved parties including customers, employees, suppliers and financiers are considered.

To achieve a desired outcome, resources have to be handled using what is popularly known as the process approach. Such a process ensures that there is better individual responsibility and accountability. Moreover, risks and consequences of every activity that takes place in an organisation can be fully evaluated. The overlap of key undertakings in the company can also be identified through the process.

One of the most effective management approaches to use is the system approach. This approach requires proper identification and understanding of all the components of a given system. It is an approach that is associated with high levels of efficacy, consistency and effectiveness. There is continuous improvement through constant evaluation and measurement.

Quality management systems must always use facts in the decision making process. All the available data on various processes in a firm must be properly collected, analysed and interpreted. The data should be used to guide the changes in the firm.




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