The principles underpinning quality management, designed to facilitate continuous improvement. These principles are essential for any company seeking to consolidate its position, grow and develop in order to succeed. When ISO 9001 certification is achieved. The principles of quality management are inherent in the most common management standards, such as ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 or EMAS for environmental management, ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety, ISO 27001 or EN IS for information security, ISO 50001 for energy efficiency, or ISO 13485 for medical devices.
Quality Principle 1: Customer focus
Customer focus is an ongoing commitment to identifying and meeting the needs and priorities of both internal and external customers.
It depends on many factors, such as process management, continuous improvement, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and quality management. The most important factor is the empathy and sensitivity of the company’s staff. It aims to ensure that staff empathise with our customers and maintain this ongoing approach to identifying and meeting their needs and expectations.
Quality Principle 2: Leadership.
Leadership, as one of the principles of quality management, involves organisational and planning activities within the framework of the strategy. The analysis, prevention, improvement and monitoring of total quality must be permanently incorporated into the integrated management system, through the business plan or ISO certification, thereby fostering awareness and a spirit of quality improvement within management.
Quality Principle 3: Commitment to people.
Staff are the lifeblood of an organisation. Their genuine commitment ensures that their skills are put to good use for the organisation’s benefit. Employee commitment involves:
- Motivating, engaging and committing staff. Ongoing training helps to achieve this.
- A high level of staff participation and contribution to continuous improvement. To achieve this, management by objectives, combined with incentives and recognition, may be necessary.
Quality Principle 4: Process-oriented approach
Process-based management of activities and resources is one of the principles of quality management that helps to achieve the desired results more effectively. To implement it, you must:
- Define processes and responsibilities correctly.
- Ensure that the interfaces between processes and functions are clearly defined.
- Assess risks, their consequences and impacts. The ISO 31000 standard can serve as a guide in this regard.
Quality Principle 5: Continuous improvement
Continuous improvement, as one of the principles of quality management, must be an ongoing objective. It is achieved by following the ‘Deming Cycle’ or PDCA cycle. Continuous improvement delivers:
- It sustainably increases competitive advantage. This is vital for fulfilling the marketing plan.
- It enables a rapid response to new opportunities. This ensures customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Quality Principle 6. A fact-based approach to decision-making.
You should be aware that what can be measured cannot be controlled, and what cannot be controlled leads to chaos. That is why the most effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information. This entails:
- Sound decisions, based on data.
- The ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of decisions by referring to real facts.
- The ability to question opinions and decisions and to carry out reviews.
Quality Principle 7: Relationship Management
Relationship management enhances the ability to create value for both the organisation and the supplier. This quality principle delivers:
- Enhanced ability to create value for the organisation and the customer.
- The ability to offer flexibility and responsiveness in a changing market.
- Optimisation of costs and resources. Applying quality management principles helps to increase profits through cost and risk management.