“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” ~William A. Foster

Quality of a project or service is the main concern for every organization. A customer also looks for quality products and services. If the quality is up to the mark, then the customer remains loyal to the organization and brings regular business to the organization. ISO 9001 is a quality standard which helps organizations to establish a quality management system, so that the organization may control and assure quality of its products and services.

The quality management system (QMS) provides a roadmap for the businesses so that they can produce quality products and/ or services consistently. ISO 9001 has therefore suggested seven quality management principles which are a set of institutional standards on quality management and are essential elements of the quality program of any organization. These seven principles of quality management are described below in detail.

Customer Focus

Customer satisfaction is the prime objective of all the great companies. As mentioned earlier also, greater customer satisfaction and good customer experience fetches regular business from the customer and every organization want its customers to be repeat customers.

Therefore, establishing great relationship with customers is as important as producing great products and services. Learning about the likings and requirements of the customer by listening to his feedback and from other data is crucial because it helps the organization improving their products and services. The organizations can continuously add features, that are most desirable by the customers. The data obtained from the customers is important for the business of the organization as it helps them understanding actual customer needs and deciding their business strategies.

Leadership

Vision and actions of a great leader help monitoring & motivating the team and communicating effectively the shared purpose and the objectives of the organization. This ultimately transforms into great products and services having quality and purpose as desired by the customers. Therefore, an effective leadership is and essential ingredient of for implementing the quality processes in the organization.

People Engagement

Keeping people continuously engaged and informed is very helpful for achieving quality. The first thing is to communicate effectively all the relevant information to the team members and other stakeholders. The goals and targets of the team members should be achievable and they should be continuously motivated for achieving the goals.

Not only the team members, but the suppliers and other stakeholders should be continuously kept informed about the quality standards and they should be made accountable about what they are delivering.

Process Approach

Analyzing and streamlining the processes is equally important for running the quality programs in an organization. First, all the processes should be analyzed for their effectiveness and the unnecessary processes is the best way to achieve quality products and services.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is a key factor for achieving quality products and services. Gathering data about errors and improving the processes is crucial for any organization.

Evidence Based Decision Making

Any decision taken on the basis of the evidences is the best decision. Gathering relevant data, analyzing it and taking action on the basis of that analysis is crucial, not only for quality processes but for any other process also. Data driven approach has the benefit that your decision will give you accurate results and you will not have to re- work as a result of the wrong decision. You will be more confident in taking any decision if it is based on the facts.

Relationship Management

Establishing and maintaining strong relations with all the stakeholders, including suppliers and customers is crucial for quality. Taking regular feedback of customers and providing that to suppliers help them to improve the products and services.

Rewarding the suppliers for achieving the benchmark motivates them to achieve best results for the organization. Strong relations with suppliers and customers help the organizations to retain them. Frequently changing the suppliers may be detrimental to the quality as the new suppliers will be unaware of the customer requirements while retaining the existing suppliers is helpful in producing quality products and services because the existing suppliers understand the needs of the customers and they may respond quickly to changing customer requirements.

The customers also become more confident about using the products and services which have a proven track record of delivering quality and hence the customers will be loyal to the organizations.

Also read: <strong>Total Quality Management, Key Principles and Advantages</strong>

Conclusion

Quality management processes are key to success of any organization. These processes help any organization to produce quality products and services which are key to sustainability and long term growth. The customers cannot be fooled by marketing tactics. Eventually they discover quality products and services and become loyal to those organizations, which truly understand their requirements and solve their problems. Therefore, above mentioned quality principles should be the core of every quality program of any organization.  

Also Read: Seven Basic Quality Tools for Quality Management