Recently we conducted workshops on the ISO 9001:2015 Standard. A point of interest to all, was the new increased emphasis and requirement of “Top Management Involvement” contained in clause 5.1, Leadership of the Draft International Standard published.
As quality professionals and prior quality managers, we and you have shared the frustration on the lack of top management commitment, and specifically lack of hands-on involvement with the company Quality Management System. Sure, the process of management review meetings does require top management involvement, however too may times we have witnessed the Quality Manager as the delegated source of data, measurement representation, and communication to all management review attendees of the quality system effectiveness.
Real involvement stems from top management when they realize the quality department is not a departmentalized function, but a interwoven unit of established controls and monitoring methods. These methods are monitored against defined criteria which are aligned with company business objectives.
Let’s take a look at the significant leadership differences in the future new standard:
- Take accountability for the effectiveness of the quality management system.
- Ensure that the quality policy and quality objectives are established for the QMS and are compatible with the context of and strategic direction of the organization.
- Ensure the integration of the QMS requirements into the organization’s business processes.
Requires leaders to take accountability for the effectiveness of the quality management system.
Attention: This will promote and require discussion and integration of the quality group and top management team. Having accountability requires this – let’s face it the standard has not had any new requirements in 15 years! Meaningful involvement and learning from the quality group for top management will be required in the early stages of this transition, an essential step. When your leaders are accountable they will want to know, need to know all the new requirements which will take their attention, time, and resources necessary.
Requires leaders to establish a quality policy and objectives compatible with the context and strategic direction of the organization.
Compatibility in this context drives integrating quality into business processes as process objectives must now be more clearly aligned with your company strategic direction (a.k.a. long-term business goals). This will most clearly require top management involvement with this new requirement. Can a Quality Manager define the company context -scope and purpose, strategic direction, interested internal and external parties and review of requirements? Let’s not forget the identification of “Risks” which can affect the organization ability to meet these objectives; another top management requirement of the future standard.
Requires leaders to integrating quality management system requirements into your business processes.
This requirement will never be successful without engagement between top management and the quality group. Question: Is their a wide gap of distinction in your company between quality processes and business processes? Our experience tells us that wide gaps do exist in some organizations. This can include information on quality performance, measurement methods used, trends and indicators, responsiveness. An aggressive company business plan should also include the numerous quality-related preparations and controls required to expand operations and opportunities, and still maintain quality excellence.
Clause 5.1 of the ISO 9001:2015 revision contains seven more requirements of leadership that are either new or improved from the ISO 901: 2008 revision. This clause, and others in the future standard (projected published date September 2015) will require direct involvement from your organizations leadership. Quality and operational professionals – It’s time to prepare.
We are here to support you and your organization with all your transition needs. We will be offering training, onsite evaluations to determine needs, documentation development and improvement, pre-assessment auditing, and internal audit support. Contact us to discuss your planning needs.
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