According to Wikipedia:
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Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service is consistent. It has four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement.[1] Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_management]
It doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
When different people ask, “What is Quality management?”, they could be applying their own experiences and background to the question…
a supplier – wants to receive a clear and unambiguous order, including a PO, prints, and specs – that don’t contradict each other!
an executive – wants a system that delivers defect-free products or services to customers that are right, the first time, and every time.
a customer – wants to know that the product or service that they are receiving isn’t just a fluke, a lucky guess – that it’s repeatable and reproducible with every order
It’s a system. With four basic steps.
In order to get a repeatable delivery, there has to be a system in place to deliver this. For many companies, they have chosen ISO 9001 as their Quality Management System, while other organizations simply have good quality management practices in place, but do not get externally certified.
Planning is done at the outset, to ensure the product or service is set up for success – successful delivery at a fair price that meets the customers’ wants and needs.
Quality Control works on fulfillment of requirements by focusing on key parameters that can affect outcomes – and typically involves testing to determine if outcomes are met (defect detection – reactive).
Quality Assurance works to eliminate or minimize issues that lead to defects, so is focused on defect prevention (proactive).
Quality Improvement is working with processes that are already stable, to make them more efficient and effective.
It works.
There are hundreds of success stories from answering the question what is quality management? Contact us today to hear a few of them, and find out if we can add yours to the list!
