Achieve Control for Extraordinary Results
Most of my columns that have been based on ISO 9001 have been about using the standard to achieve great business results. I believe that there is a profound connection between top managers’ quality management system (QMS) activities (i.e., planning, provision of resources, management review, and focusing the organization on meeting customer requirements) and bottom-line business performance.
It’s likely that many users know only the 2000 version of ISO 9001, but some will remember using the 1994 and perhaps even the 1987 versions. Those earlier versions seemed to focus more on the quality control aspects than the managerial aspects of quality management. Some otherwise sane experts have said that ISO 9001 wasn’t a management system standard until the 2000 version. It can be argued that this perception is incorrect and that a proper understanding of the earlier versions includes most of the managerial aspects. Such debate is of little use to us now, so we will dismiss the notion and leave it to the currently popular truth (or, if you desire, myth) that “perception is reality.” But what about the emphasis on control?
A common perception is that the earlier versions emphasize control while the current version emphasizes a more holistic approach of managing to achieve conformity to customer requirements. If you like to use objective data, it is easy to reach the conclusion that the opposite is true. According to my count, the word “control” appears 33 times in the text of ISO 9001:1994 and 37 times in the text of ISO 9001:2000. Nine of the 37 appearances in ISO 9001:2000 are in clause 7. Its first appearance is in subclause 4.1.c, which requires determination of the means to control the processes of the QMS. The last appearance of the term “control” is found in subclause 8.3, where a documented procedure is required to describe the controls for nonconforming product. So, just by counting, we can surmise that the concept of “control” might be marginally more important now than it was in the mid-1990s. I think that is actually the case. This viewpoint is bolstered by an increased emphasis on outsourcing of products and on purchasing products from emerging countries around the world. Pressures to deploy controls may come from many sources, and I am sure you can make your own list. Here are a few of the reasons on mine:
• Suppliers around the world may have cultural norms for the product in question that are far different from ours.
• Suppliers and manufacturers may view providing a cheaper version as a business opportunity rather than nonconformity with our requirements.
• Certification of products and quality management systems may be less rigorous or less focused on achieving product conformity than we expect.
• We may be so focused on getting the right price that we ignore warning signals.
Let’s, for the moment, set aside management systems standards and discuss the concept of control itself. Subclause 3.2.10, ISO 9000:2005--”Quality management systems--Fundamentals and vocabulary,” defines quality control as the “part of quality management… focused on fulfilling quality requirements.”
The concept is perhaps best understood in the context of what the late Joseph M. Juran called the “trilogy”--quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. Viewed over time, we plan the processes for meeting customer requirements, and we include planned continual improvement. But most of the time, we need to exercise control to make certain that the plans in place are executed as intended. With the majority of a product’s life cycle spent in the “quality control” mode, it is important that we plan the controls carefully during quality planning.
ISO 9001 provides an excellent model for planning and implementing the controls needed for most organizations. During the next several months we will look at the ISO 9001 control requirements to uncover the secrets of control. One caution: Controls behave like any other element of a system--add, delete, or change a control in one part of the system and the result may well be changes separated by time and distance from the control. This phenomenon can be particularly troublesome with today’s far-flung supply networks. This means that we must be very careful in planning control because we can actually make quality worse if we do it wrong!
The point is that even the best whiz-bang product in the world needs extraordinarily well-planned and -executed controls to be successful in the marketplace.
John E. (Jack) West is a consultant, business advisor, and author with more than 30 years of experience in a wide variety of industries. From 1997 through 2005 he was chair of the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 176 and lead delegate for the United States to the International Organization for Standardization committee responsible for the ISO 9000 series of quality management standards. He remains active in TC 176 and is chair of the ASQ Standards Group.
|
