quality policy

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The word quality directive ( English Quality Guideline ) consists of the words quality and policy together. According to DIN EN ISO 9000 , quality is defined as the “degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfills requirements” or according to DIN 55350, quality is the “realized condition of a unit with regard to the quality requirement”. A policy is a higher authority directive to act by, but it is not a formal law. The quality guideline is therefore an instruction to act according to, in which the nature of a unit (activities, process, product, organization, person, system) is specified with regard to the quality requirement in order to ensure quality. The term quality guideline is mostly associated with quality management , since quality guidelines are an essential part of quality management. With the aim that the quality requirements are understood by everyone who participates in the quality management system and with the aim that the unit complies with the quality requirements. One encounters quality guidelines in everyday life, because pretty much everything has its quality guidelines; For example, there are quality guidelines for hospitals, quality guidelines for suppliers, quality guidelines for concrete pipes, quality guidelines for all companies and many more.

Reasons for quality guidelines

The success of a company, regardless of whether it offers services or products, is based on the quality of its performance. This is important in order to remain competitive in the market and to generate profit for the company. This is only possible if the customer is satisfied with the service, that is, in turn, with the quality. It is precisely in order to maintain this quality and in order not to lose customers to the competition that quality management , in particular the quality guidelines according to which the services are manufactured, has become indispensable. Therefore, quality management has a very high priority in the company. Adhering to the quality guidelines not only lowers the error rate, but also, as already mentioned above, the company's profit increases, it remains competitive on the global market and the number of customers increases.

Determination of the quality guideline

The quality guidelines are determined by the quality management , whose further tasks also include the definition of the quality policy and quality objectives, quality planning , quality control , quality assurance and quality improvement.

Content of the quality guideline

Certain aspects have to be defined, namely the structural quality (structural requirements and organizational structures), the process quality (daily work and procedures) and, finally, the quality of the results (testing and control); In addition, the risk management has to be considered. This is very important in the quality guidelines, because since the quality management system is constantly changing, but the customer must not feel any loss of quality, a functioning risk management system must be in place in the event of an error, i.e. if an error occurs, it must be notified in advance immediately preventive measures that have already been decided are started.

Structure of the quality guideline

Since every company has its own quality guidelines and there are no uniform quality guidelines for all companies, an overarching classification can be created. A quality guideline is a written document in which the following points are listed and discussed:

  • Purpose of the guideline: The purpose of the guideline is that everyone who works in the company (this also includes suppliers who deliver pipe materials or also dispatch the end product) has the same quality guideline and thus the same operating instructions and quality requirements.
  • Aim of the guideline: The aim of the guideline is to reduce the error rate and to maintain the quality, if not to increase it.
  • Management systems : The management system defines which quality management standards the company must comply with in order to comply with the standards in this standard.
  • Process and product quality: Here it is determined how the process has to run, be it the manufacture of a product or a service, in order to obtain the highest possible quality of the product or service.
  • Quality planning: Here the quality is planned from the beginning to the end of the product in order to prevent possible sources of error; therefore, particular attention is paid to risk management .
  • Documentation: The documentation depends on which quality management standard the company is subject to; Depending on the situation, the documentation must contain other things. For example, according to DIN EN ISO 9001: 2000 , the documentation for the quality management system must contain the following points: documented statements on quality policy and quality objectives; a quality management manual; documented procedures that are required by the standards; Documents that the organization needs to plan, execute and control its processes effectively; quality records required by the standard; the scope of the documentation depends on the size and type of organization, the complexity of the processes and the skills of the staff.
  • Product approval: The quality is checked again here. If it is within the tolerance range, the product is released.

example

In order to understand this better and to clarify it again, a concrete example of a quality guideline now follows. Our fictional company XY is a medium-sized company that attaches great importance to customer satisfaction and quality. This means that quality management is given high priority in the company. The company gets the raw material from a supplier in the region. The company processes the raw material in a 7-step process chain to create the end product, which is then dispatched by another company. Company XY is assessed according to DIN EN ISO 9001: 2000 and must adhere to these guidelines. The quality guidelines in this company will look like this: The purpose of the guidelines of this company will be that the workers as well as the suppliers follow the same quality guideline and thus act according to the same instructions and have the same quality standards as the entire company. The aim of the guidelines is to maintain and improve quality in order to maintain or expand the customer base. The management system that the company must comply with is DIN EN ISO 9001: 2000 . The company's process and product quality determines how high the requirements of the 7 individual steps are. This means, for example, that there is only a certain tolerance within which the product can move in order to meet the quality requirements. In quality planning, it is planned how the quality should be from beginning to end; it is important to consider risk management in order to react quickly to errors that have occurred. The points mentioned above are written down in the documentation of the quality guidelines. And finally, the product approval is anchored in the quality guideline. Here the entire product is again checked, measured and the quality checked. If everything meets the requirements, is within the range of tolerance and complies with the guidelines, it will be approved.

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Brüggemann, Peik Bremer: Basics of quality management, From tools to methods to TQM, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Wiesbaden, Springer Viewer 2015, ISBN 978-3834813091 , p. 3 f.
  2. ↑ Holger Brüggemann, Peik Bremer: Basics of quality management, From tools to methods to TQM, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Wiesbaden, Springer Viewer 2015, ISBN 978-3834813091 , p. 122
  3. ^ Tilo Pfeifer, Robert Schmitt (editor): Masing Handbuch Qualitätmanagement , Carl Hanser Fachbuchverlag Munich Vienna, 6th revised edition (2014), ISBN 978-3-446-43431-8 , p. 53