With consumers placing an increasingly large emphasis on product quality, meeting regulatory standards like ISO 9001 is more important than ever. To keep up with the ISO 9001 group of standards, many companies find a digital quality management system (QMS) to be a necessity. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at ISO and how a QMS improves ISO 9001 management by reducing the cost of quality, reducing human error, establishing product consistency, streamlining your workflows, and meeting compliance standards.
ISO standards are regulations upheld by the International Organization for Standardization. They cover a range of business concerns, from business continuity, information security, risk management, etc. However, ISO 9001 specifically outlines quality management system standards for quality assurance, meeting customer needs, and overall customer satisfaction.
There are eight fundamental principles of quality management at the center of the ISO 9001:
A quality management system is a collection of business functions that work to continuously improve your company’s quality, guarantee customer expectations are met, and ensure compliance. The primary purpose of this software is to ensure your company is meeting customer and regulatory requirements and providing consistent products or services throughout your organization.
With a digital QMS in place, managing your ISO 9001 compliance can be simple. Here’s how:
5 Ways that a QMS Improves ISO 9001 Management
Transferring your business information and remaining compliant with industry standards can seem difficult and costly. However, a QMS can actually reduce your company’s quality costs while keeping you in line with ISO 9001 requirements using a few different features:
Using these capabilities, your quality process is set up to easily identify inefficient areas and reduce wasteful production errors. And by lowering instances of poor-quality outputs, your company’s overall cost of quality will be reduced right along with it.
A major part of meeting ISO standards is delivering a quality product that meets your customers’ expectations. This means you need to reliably manufacture products that meet every quality objective your company has in place. The key to achieving this is establishing consistency throughout your supply chain processes.
Because implementing a QMS requires companies to define and describe the best practices for all business responsibilities, consistency and quality are foundational components of Quality Management Systems. When a QMS is implemented, your company is required to outline specific standard operating procedures (SOPs), minimizing the risks of nonconformance and maximizing efficiency. Further, because a QMS is a centralized database available to your team from anywhere at any time, your employees can align their efforts throughout the supply chain and work toward common quality goals, making it simple to meet customer expectations and deliver a consistently high-quality product.
While some instances of human error are unavoidable, ISO 9001 expects companies to limit these occurrences as much as possible. Section 8.5.1 under the ISO 9001:2015 umbrella of standards states: “The organization shall implement production and service provision under controlled conditions. Controlled conditions shall include, as applicable: … the implementation of actions to prevent human error”. Luckily, there are tools and procedures within a QMS to help minimize human error events and make adhering to ISO standards easier.
With a traditional quality system, employees are collecting information on paper and then transferring this data into an electronic document management system. This process can quickly become riddled with human error. A QMS eliminates the need for paper data entry and turns a two-step process into one simple step. Workers can collect data on a convenient electronic device in real-time and diminish the risk of common transfer errors.
A QMS can reduce both the frequency and the severity of human errors using the following capabilities:
Under a quality management system, each employee works towards measurable objectives. Human errors are diminished, and workers have a straightforward idea of what their quality objectives are, ensuring that the organization complies with this section of ISO 9001:2015.
As mentioned above, focusing on continuous improvement is one of the eight fundamental principles of quality management that are at the center of the ISO 9001. Prioritizing this process and implementing it into your permanent business goals can have lasting benefits to the organization such as stronger performance, strategic market placement, increased efficiency, and team engagement. And, by constantly striving for higher quality processes, you can ensure that portion of meeting ISO 9001 is covered.
With a QMS, continuous improvement becomes a primary objective for every member of your team. Firstly, the SOPs your company creates and stores within your system support the use of regular audits of the QMS framework, ensuring continuous progress toward increased quality. Further, these systems offer comprehensive training. By thoroughly training every member of your organization on your product line and processes, you can create an underlying progression of problem solving and innovation. Continual improvement becomes engrained in your company’s culture rather than a separate time-consuming process.
The most important function of a QMS is its ability to help your organization meet compliance standards. The process of tracking and adhering to ISO requirements can be overwhelming for an organization that does not have a quality management system in place. By implementing a QMS, your organization will have the necessary tools to meet ISO 9001 certification requirements using the following features:
Adhering to quality management principles will produce better quality products and more satisfied customers, improving your business practices tremendously. And to do so effectively, implementing a QMS is essential. It will help save your business from the risk of human error, reduce quality costs, and ensure you meet the quality standards required of your industry.
Check out our other resources on meeting ISO standards with Quality Management:
If your company is looking to become ISO 9001 Certified and keep up with industry standards, a QMS is vital. Contact us today to learn about DocXellent’s Quality Management Software, ENSUR.