What is a Quality Management System?
QMS is the totality of actions taken to bring together the producing company, customers, corresponding legal actions, and the ability to produce products with unique specifications and enabling the continuation of these actions.
With increasing competition, customers are becoming more knowledgeable every day and their expectations increase every day. Under these conditions, creating an effective Quality Management System (QMS) will set a company apart from others in its sector, and provide the fundamental element for continuing a company’s existence.
ISO 9000
The ISO 9000 set of standards includes the three standards listed below which were created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with the purpose of guiding organizations in creating quality management systems and enabling their continuation.
ISO 9000: 2008, Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and Vocabulary
ISO 9001: 2008, Quality Management Systems– Requirements
ISO 9004: 2008, Quality Management Systems – The Guide to Performance Improvements
ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems – is the standard that addresses the basic documentation of the ISO 9000 family and is comprised of the 5 main sections that are described below (prepared with the purpose of explaining and guiding the other standards in the ISO 9000 series):
1. Quality Management System
1.1 – General
1.2 – Documentation Conditions
2. Management Responsibility
2.1 – Management Committment
2.2 – Customer Focus
2.3 – Quality Policy
2.4 – Planning
2.5 – Responsibility, Authority and Communication
2.6 – Management Review
3. Resource Management
3.1 – Provision of Resources
3.2 – Human Resources
3.3 – İnfrasturcture
3.4 – Work Environment
4. Product Realization
4.1 – Planning Product Realization
4.2 – Customer-Related Processes
4.3 – Design and Development
4.4 – Purchasing
4.5 – Production and Service Provison
5. Measurement, Analysis and Improvement
5.1 – General
5.2 – Monitoring and Measuring
5.3 – Control of Nonconforming Products
5.4 – Analysis of Data
5.5 – Improvement
An ISO 9001: 2008 QMS aims to develop applications by adopting the following fundamental principles;
• Customer Focus
• Leadership
• Employee Participation
• Process-oriented approach
• System approach
• Continual improvement
• Effective decision-making
• Collaborating with Vendors
and provides the following benefits to a company;
• Reduce inappropriate products/services to a minimum
• Increase productivity by enabling time and other resources to be used more effectively
• Increase customer satisfaction
The Founding of the ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System
How a Quality Management System is designed and used is closely related to how well a company will benefit from the QMS. If one does not identify the unique conditions for the company, the QMS can be a burden to the company, instead of providing it benefits
Fundamental steps to take when forming an effective QMS include;
• Management must provide the necessary support