adminIf you’re running a business today, you must be aware that ‘quality’ is essential for success. Hence, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has been implementing quality management system principles.
All these principles and methodologies help businesses prosper by improving production and by protecting the parties involved from potential errors.
One of the most spoken about models is the Quality Management System standards model — the ISO 9001:2015; adopted to address regulatory requirements and to ensure customer satisfaction by keeping up with quality. The set of regulations, if implemented well, can provide major operational and marketing benefits to businesses.
Let’s take a look at the 8 universal quality management principles and how businesses should adopt them.
8 Universal Quality Management System Principles
The set of universal quality management system principles can be complex but with some effort, business owners can identify, comprehend, and incorporate these principles in their operations. Let’s take a look at 8 quality management standards that business owners should be aware of.
Principle 1 — Customer Focus
According to this principle, the first and foremost approach for businesses should be to value their customers and adopt a customer-centric approach. Some of the benefits of adopting this approach would mean increased sales, a larger margin in profits and improved customer loyalty.
This principle continuously demands businesses to strive to understand their present and future customers. Some of the ways businesses can implement this principle are by:
- Creating customer personas and understanding needs
- Aligning business goals with customer needs
- Taking feedback and improving processes/ products
- Managing relationships
Principle 2 — Leadership
According to this principle, organizations succeed under strong, purposeful, and unified leadership. It involves having a clear goal-oriented vision with a roadmap and the right personnel in place to work on that vision.
Executing this principle right increases employee retention, improves innovation and brings in enthusiasm within the team to contribute to continuous quality improvement.
Some ways you can implement this principle are by:
- Encouraging a clear communication route
- Well defining roles within the teams
- Acknowledging success and encouraging self-evaluation
- Promoting an open environment for brainstorming innovative operational solutions
Principle 3 — Engagement of People
According to this principle, businesses should realize that the employees are at the heart of a successful organization. It states the importance of keeping the employees motivated and engaged, not only in their routine tasks but also in the firm as a whole. In addition, employees must know the value of their role and how it fits into the larger company goals.
One way to implement this principle is by managing processes by clearly defining roles and ensuring that the resources are being utilised to their full potential.
Principle 4 — Process Approach
This quality principle ensures that businesses adhere to a well thought and set process, which is a perfect blend of effective methods, good materials, skilled manpower, and machines to produce a product.
It focuses on consistency and understanding. Good processes speed up activities and enhance quality.
Principle 5 — Systematic Approach to Management
Interlinked with the previous one, this principle states that businesses should follow a systematic approach to manage processes and streamline them.
It emphasizes the importance of clearly identifying processes, eliminating hurdles, and dedicating attention to key tasks. This helps manage multiple processes together as a system leading to greater efficiency.
Principle 6 — Constant Improvement
This principle is quite straightforward — Tells businesses to improve their status quo.
A constant commitment to improvement in all the business aspects not only improves quality but helps businesses seize new opportunities and increases organisational flexibility. In addition, it fosters an environment that encourages good performance which further helps businesses to adapt and survive during changing market conditions.
Best ways to implement this principle include:
- Providing training to professionals to learn skills
- Encouraging innovation to improve processes
- Implementing policies for measurable goals.
Principle 7 — Adopting a Factual Approach
According to this principle, businesses should adopt a rational approach in making decisions. It states that businesses succeed when their decisions can be backed by collected data and its analysis. In addition, it helps decision-makers defend themselves past their decision-making stage.
Therefore, it is essential to have well-examined reports that determine cause and effect. Focus on having input from multiple sources.
Principle 8 — Maintain Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relations
The subject of this principle is the supply chain. It promotes a good working relationship of the business with its suppliers to boost productivity and foster a seamless operational process.
The benefits of maintaining strong relationships can be seen by productive involvement, optimised costs, and great support in catering to the changing markets or customer demands.
Ace Maintaining Quality With Pulse
Pulse is a world-class AI tool that aims to digitize your operational processes to manage quality. The 360-degree audit and inspection tool creates powerful checklists, automates compliance and takes care of audits. In addition, it helps you ensure your personnel adheres to the quality standards you’ve established. To manage quality in your processes and products, book a demo with us.