THG Formulations

Element 5.3 of ISO 9001 Standard requires an organization to establish a quality policy. More specifically, the standard requires: “The management” of an organization to “ensure that the quality policy”:

- Is appropriate to the purpose of the organization;

- Includes a commitment to comply with requirements;

- Includes a commitment to continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS;

- Provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives;

- Is communicated and understood within the organization;

- Is reviewed for continuing suitability

Despite the fact that these requirements appear to be rather simple, most companies I worked with as a consultant or an auditor, had difficulties with documenting their ISO 9001 quality policies by not addressing all the requirements above. Establishing a quality policy that, as a minimum, addresses all the requirements above is important because of our commitment to establish a QMS that comply with a given standard. Therefore, we have to adhere to it’s requirements. What if our quality policy did not require its review “for continuing suitability”? Most likely that this review would never be done.

To demonstrate my point, let’s go to the Internet and check a few quality policies on the Internet. Search for “iso 9001 quality policy” and you will find a list of companies that posted their quality policies on their Websites.

“[Company name] is committed to serve it’s customers and meet their needs and expectations in the design, manufacture and supply of reliable and innovative technologies and products for [product descriptions] using modern management, engineering and material sciences. [Company name] is committed to continuing improvement of it’s products and services to achieve increased customer satisfaction as well as to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Quality Management System and it’s continuing improvement.” Assuming that this quality policy is appropriate to the purpose of the organization and is communicated, these two requirements are met. Customer needs and expectations may be considered as requirements, so this requirement is also addressed. However, commitment to continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS, provision of a framework for reviewing quality objectives and commitment to review quality policy for continuing suitability are apparent.

Another one: “Quality is the heart of our business and key to our goal of total customer satisfaction. Therefore it is our policy to: Consistently provide valued products and services that meet the current and future needs of our customers and suppliers; support each other in the daily use of quality systems, processes and methods to improve every activity constantly and forever; continuously look for means to construct change which provides for significant improvements in quality beyond what can be achieved by continuous improvement methods alone.” As you can see, this quality policy did not address any, I think, of the requirements of the standard. Can you imagine their quality manual or the entire quality management system?

I did not select these examples because they did not comply with the standard. I picked them from the top of the search results, just to show that most quality policies were not written to meet requirements of the standard. If you think these examples are bad, wait a moment. One of my clients came up with a quality policy that is out of this world: “I improve the Quality of Patient Care and all things [Company name]” No! I am not kidding and I did not misspelled or took any words out of this regretful quote!

Mark Kaganov is a Director of Operations with Quality Works. Since mid 90th our business assisted hundreds of companies in the US and abroad in developing their quality assurance programs. With our focus on cost reduction and process optimization, our customers’ quality management systems showed continual improvement.