Principles of quality management. Standards for quality management systems ISO 9000

The principles of quality management imply a brief formulation, which contains guidelines for monitoring the state of the products. They are developed at the international level, and also serve as a guide to action for entrepreneurs.

Basic principles of quality management

Quality management is regulated by international standards. This is a kind of recommendations and directives for managers of industrial enterprises. So, the following principles of quality management are provided:

• Any organization in its activities should be oriented to customers , because it is in some dependence on them. The firm is created with the purpose to satisfy the needs of clients, and therefore it is necessary to constantly react to newly arising requests. Orientation to the consumer will significantly increase the market share, as well as profit by attracting new customers.
• Leader leadership is that it is he who sets the goals for the operation of the enterprise and creates a certain atmosphere in which employees work. The leader must literally lead his team on the path to achieve high results. Thus, the work of all units will be coordinated, coordinated and directed.
• Any manager should delegate a number of responsibilities, as well as involve employees in the management process. This makes it possible to reveal their latent abilities, as well as to fully utilize all available labor resources. This gives additional motivation to employees, and also allows them to feel personal responsibility for the results of the organization's activities.
• The principle of the process approach implies that the activity of an enterprise should be perceived and managed as a process. In this regard, the inputs and outputs, as well as intermediate positions, must be clearly marked. This allows standardizing production processes, which subsequently leads to a reduction in the cycle.
• A systematic approach to managing an organization. This makes it possible to improve the relationship between individual units and processes. As a result, the manager has an opportunity to concentrate on the key processes, without disrupting attention to secondary tasks. As a result, the work of the organization becomes stable.
• Continuous improvement is the main goal of any enterprise that strives to achieve success. This allows you to get certain advantages against the background of other organizations operating in the market.
• All decisions concerning the management of an enterprise should be made on the basis of specific facts that are objective in nature. Thus, any action will be fundamental and justified.
• Relations with suppliers must be built on mutually beneficial terms. When an enterprise is confident in the purchased raw materials or semi-finished products, it can reduce the time and material costs of control. In addition, such a partnership will be valuable in view of the stability.

Thus, it can be said that the principles of quality management illustrate the organization's work ideally. The manager can implement them in whole or in part.

ISO 9000

The quality of products and services is regulated at the international level. Thus, the requirements for this system are described in international standards ISO 9000. It should be noted that compliance with this document is not always a guarantee of high quality, because it depends on a number of other factors. Nevertheless, this gives the manufacturer some degree of reliability. In addition, it is worth noting that the basic principles declared by this document can be adjusted, depending on the organizational features of the enterprise.

The quality management system 9001 is a modernized version, whose goal is to stabilize the quality management system. Initially, the relations between consumers and suppliers were regulated. At the moment, this is the minimum necessary condition, which allows the company to operate effectively in the market. The system allows managers to formalize the approach to management.

Certification of quality management systems defines the fundamental terms that enterprises should follow. This is the necessary basis, which allows you to control the characteristics of the product at all stages of production.

Why is certification carried out

Certification of quality management systems is conducted in order to determine the following:

• Compliance of products and services with the requirements of international organizations;
• Determination of the effectiveness of the quality management system used at the enterprise;
• Establishment of standards and norms to which the quality of products must correspond;
• Regulation of workflow;
• Detailing the processes of the quality management system.

The receipt of the corresponding certificate is preceded by the following steps:

• Submission of documents and their preliminary consideration;
• Preparation and conducting of audit of quality management at the enterprise;
• Completion of work.

How is quality of products assessed?

Methods for assessing product quality can be classified as follows:

• By the method of obtaining information:
  • Measuring - means the use of special precision instruments;
  • Registration - the data obtained on the basis of mechanical or automatic counting are used;
  • Organoleptic - on the basis of information obtained by perception through the senses;
  • Calculated - based on the use of special formulas.
• According to the source of information:
  • Traditional - the data of accounting documents are used;
  • Expert - a group of specialists is involved in a particular industry;
  • Sociological - data are collected through surveys.

The most common methods for assessing quality are as follows:

• Differential - individual indicators are evaluated, for each of which a comparison with the standard is made;
• Qualitative is a generalized indicator that takes into account all characteristics at once;
• Mixed method implies a general assessment with the isolation of individual characteristics.

Total control

Total quality management is a concept that combines modern achievements in the field of increasing labor productivity, as well as principles of compliance with international norms. For the first time this term was introduced by the Japanese in the 1960s. The method is based on the constant application of the basic eight principles.

Primary requirements

The following requirements for quality management are put forward at enterprises:

• Determination of the list of controlling processes with their application at all stages of production activity;
• All processes of quality management should be carried out in a certain sequence and clearly interact with each other;
• The criteria and methods of control must correspond to the current achievements of science and technology;
• The manager should always have access to up-to-date information for continuous monitoring of the process;
• Continuous analytical work to identify deviations and timely action;
• Monitoring compliance of the results achieved should be planned.

The purpose, objectives and tactics of quality management

The goal of quality management is a long-term orientation to the consumer's request, as well as respect for the interests of the owners and employees of the enterprise and society as a whole. The results of the company's work should be brought into strict compliance with international standards.

In accordance with the purpose, it is worth highlighting the main tasks of quality management, which can be formulated as follows:

• Continuous improvement of product quality with a parallel reduction in its prime cost (the principle of correcting the causes of deviations should be used, and not eliminating the negative consequences of unsatisfactory results);
• Mandatory certification of the quality management system in order to develop the consumer's confidence in the reliability of the manufacturer.

Tactical provisions of quality management are as follows:

• Permanent identification of the causes of possible defects with a view to their elimination and prevention of marriage;
• Ensuring the interest of employees of all levels in raising the level of quality;
• Creating a strategy of appropriate focus;
• Constant improvement of the quality of goods through the introduction of new technologies;
• Constant monitoring of the latest scientific achievements for the purpose of their application in the production and management process;
• Independent audit, in addition to inspections of regulatory bodies;
• Continuous professional development and improvement of knowledge in the field of quality management from both the manager and all employees.

The main components of quality management

The ISO quality management system implies the following main components:

• Quality control is the activity to identify the conformity of the actual state of the product to that described in the regulatory documents (it can be carried out by measuring operations, laboratory tests, observations in the natural environment for the purpose of obtaining information);
• Quality assurance is a regular activity that implies compliance with the relevant regulatory requirements (this applies to the production process, the management apparatus, raw material procurement, and after-sales service, and so on);
• Quality planning is a set of activities to determine the future characteristics of the facility and the development of a prospective program to achieve the relevant indicators (this includes the definition and procurement of resources necessary for the production process);
• Improvement of quality is the realization of the capacity to meet the increased requirements for the production facility (also it can be a question of the technological process, organizational structure, and so on).

Popular Quality Management Areas

At the moment, quality management has received an extensive theoretical and practical basis, which combines the elements of many areas of knowledge. For many years, many systems have been formed, the most popular of which are the following:

• ISO is one of the most common systems in the world. Its main postulates are the orientation of the enterprise and each individual employee's work on improving the quality, which is manifested in the continuous improvement of each of the subsystems.
• Total quality management is a philosophy that has come to world practice from Japan. Its essence is to improve everything that is possible. At the same time, there are no clear principles and postulates on which activities should be carried out.
• Prizes for quality are some kind of awards, which are awarded to organizations that have achieved the greatest success in the field of quality control. Their products must fully comply with all established requirements. Attention is also drawn to the organization of internal control.
• "Six Sigma" is a technique that is aimed at improving all processes in the enterprise. It is aimed at identifying in time all inconsistencies in standards, determining their causes and bringing the system to a normal state. This is a specific set of tools that allows you to optimize the production process.
• Lean production is a practice that implies a reduction in the cost of production and a simultaneous increase in the quality of products. The essence of the system is that all resources and material goods should be used exclusively for the purpose of producing the product for the end user in full. If, however, an increase in the consumption of material goods does not lead to an improvement in the quality of the finished goods, they must be revised.
• Kaizen is Japanese philosophy, which implies a continuous striving for the better and stimulating demand. This is a systematic approach, which declares that one must constantly make at least insignificant steps on the way to improvement, even if there is no possibility for global transformations. Over time, these small reforms will lead to global changes (the quantity will go into quality).
• Best practices are a concept that involves learning and using the most progressive achievements of organizations that work in a particular industry.

conclusions

Quality management is one of the main tasks of any enterprise, which focuses on satisfying the consumer's request and ensuring the maximum level of profit. International organizations have developed appropriate principles, which should guide enterprises in the conduct of their activities. Producers must first of all focus on the interests of consumers. The head of the enterprise should be the leader from which the initiative and energy comes, but at the same time all employees must be involved in the production process. The organization should be perceived as an integral system. All production is a single process. Taking any management decisions, it is worth to rely on the actual data. As for relations with suppliers, they should be built on mutually beneficial terms.

To the quality management at the enterprise a number of requirements are put forward. The first step is to determine the list of processes that are subject to continuous monitoring. A clear sequence of monitoring actions should be defined, and it is also worthwhile to establish a clear relationship between them. Controlling the production process for quality, it is worth to focus on the achievements of modern science, while the information from the manager should always be relevant. The control service should identify deviations from the planned indicator and make adjustments in a timely manner.

The most widespread in the world was the ISO 9000 quality system, which contains clear recommendations and guidelines for the organization and control of the production process. If we talk about the Japanese total quality management, then it only determines the general direction and recommends a general improvement in all directions. Premiums on quality are a popular practice, which means rewarding the best producers in their industry if their products meet all the established standards. Such a system as Six Sigma is an orientation to constant monitoring of the situation in order to identify deviations and timely correct them. Lean production was quite widespread. In accordance with this concept, all available resources should be fully spent on the production of the final product with minimal losses. Quite interesting is the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. It consists in the fact that the organization should regularly take at least insignificant steps on the way to improvement, counting on the future cumulative effect. If we talk about the best practices, then the leader should study and adopt the experience of the most successful organizations working in the industry.