ISO 9001:2000

ISO

ISO: from the top

Jim Wade, a director of Advanced Training

A new emphasis on senior management involvement is one of the most talked about revisions to
ISO 9000. Jim Wade, a director of Advanced Training, discusses what the new standard requires
from the top and what the benefits are

B
ritish quality expert and author, As Sir John Harvey-Jones says, ‘all of us go.’ If the cat had been a businessperson,
John Macdonald, believes that who try to change our organisations know she would have added that not knowing
all managers are committed to that the starting point is to change one- where you want to get to also makes it dif-
quality. ‘Ask them, and they self ’. ISO 9001:2000 requires organisa- ficult to communicate to other people what
will tell you it’s true’ he says. tions to change - to continually improve - is to be achieved and why, let alone to
‘However, sometimes it is difficult to find and that necessitates changes by senior motivate them to act!
out to what exactly it is that managers are managers.
committed’. There are many general-purpose defini-
If top management can make the personal tions of quality (see ‘define quality’ in
American management visionary Tom changes to address these two issues then it October’s QW for examples). For practical
Peters has a typically direct message to demonstrates management commitment management purposes you can ignore them
managers concerning their focus on quali- within an organisation and sets a powerful all. The only definition of quality that
ty and continual improvement: ‘You are framework for continual improvement. The counts is the one on which you and your
what you spend your time on. You’re as fact that these issues are now dealt with in senior management colleagues are agreed.
committed - or as uncommitted - as your ISO 9001 is significantly good news. Clearly if you have a definition that clash-
diary says you are.’ These two observations es with what your customers, your suppli-
neatly capture two fundamental issues that The one true definition of quality… ers, your partners, or the people in your
have traditionally undermined the ability organisation, that would be a problem. So
of a QMS to actually do its job: The reason you need to define ‘quality’ is you will no doubt listen carefully to these
• top management tends not to define simply that, if you don’t know what it is, stakeholders before you decide. But - the
‘quality’ precisely and usefully you’ll never know whether or not you are decision is yours!
• top management tends not to take the achieving it. As the cat in Wonderland told
necessary actions to ensure that quality Alice: ‘If you don’t know where you want ISO 9001 helps you make this key deci-
is achieved to get to, it doesn’t matter which way you sion by requiring top management to

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 ISO 9001:2000
ISO

establish measurable quality objectives. Table 1:

These measurable objectives define what Generic business Key processes: Management & support processes:

you mean by ‘quality’. The standard also processes

Understand markets Develop and manage people
helps by requiring objectives that improve Understand customers Manage information resources
the degree to which your products and ser- Develop vision and strategy Manage financial resources
vices meet requirements, the effectiveness Design products and services Manage physical resources
of your processes and the perceptions of Source: Market products and services Manage external relationships
Process Classification Sell products and services Manage improvement and change
your customers. Produce products and services
Framework©
Copyright by the Deliver products and services
Quality and algebra American Productivity & Invoice customers
Quality Center (APQC). Service customers
There is a strong trend for managers to
stop talking about a ‘quality’ management
system. Kyocera Mita UK Limited, the ISO
Table 2:
9001:2000 registered document solutions Customer focus
ISO 9000:2000
company (its business processes are dis- Management Principles Leadership
cussed below), refers to its ‘business man- Involvement of people See Excellence! The journey
agement system’. Another firm I know calls Process approach starts here [QW May 2000]
System approach to management for a discussion of the man-
its system simply ‘the way we choose to do
Continual improvement agement actions implied by
things round here’. ‘Q’, like ‘x’, is an alge- Factual approach to decision making these principles.
braic expression - it exists only to be Mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
replaced by something that you, your col-
leagues and your customers understand!
Figure 1. Specific example of business processes (with thanks to Kyocera Mita UK limited)
Similarly, the distinction between quality
objectives and other objectives is irrele- Voice of the process
vant. Provided you take into account the
few important items ISO 9001 asks for, Quality and continual
you can define and measure quality any improvement

way you choose. And, of course, once you

have a set of objectives that suits you and
your customers, you can drop the vague
Plan the product
word ‘quality’ and focus your energies and Create the UK product
your system on achieving your objectives. Create the interest
Business Resources and
Sell the product Customers
planning information
Vital processes Deliver the product
Generate the finance
Support the customer
ISO 9001 reminds you that, as well as your
objectives, you must put in place the
processes that make achieving your objec-
tives possible. Confusion sometimes means
that processes (which are now required) are
approached as though they are the same as
procedures (which ISO 9000 used to
require in much greater quantities). done in your organisation - you must most of the resources and occupy the
change your business processes. majority of the people in the organisation.
Processes are not procedures. A process Table 1 shows a generic list of business
specifies what happens, a procedure speci- Most organisations, at the top management processes, and specific examples of busi-
fies how a process is carried out - it helps level, identify very few business processes ness processes from Kyocera Mita UK can
people do their jobs. Processes are for (typically less than 15). But organisations be seen in figure 1.
managers - think of them as business will typically want to focus - at least ini-
processes. The old saying ‘if we always do tially - on a smaller number of processes. Keeping it simple
what we’ve always done, we’ll always get These are the key business processes that
what we’ve always got’ applies. If you want relate directly to the work of the organisa- The good news about business processes is
to improve the results you get, the chances tion in providing products and services to that their description can be very simple
are very high that you must change what is customers. They also tend to consume and they can be dealt with more efficient-

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 ISo 9001:2000
ISO

ly than the previously required procedures. the organisation. It deals with taking the
Figure 2. Process description essentials
Figure 2 shows the essential elements of a © 2001 Advanced training measures you need, capturing facts in the
business process description. These are: the form of records, analysing and understand-
process name; the name of the process ing the facts, and taking actions such as
owner (the manager responsible for deci- Resources process improvement and provision of
sions about improvements to the process); Owner management information (showing perfor-
the resources needed to operate the Inputs output mance, history and trends). Steps 1 to 4
Process name
process; the inputs and outputs; and the represent the MONITOR cycle which is
performance measures to be applied to the carried out by top management. This cycle
inputs, to the outputs and to the efficiency covers planning (objectives, processes,
of the process itself. Measures
measures and resources) and reviewing
progress against the plan, using manage-
A simple diagram that describes your key ment information generated by the MEA-
business processes in this way will provide SURE cycle.
you with an excellent ‘big picture’ of the Figure 3. Continual improvement cycle
real heart of your system. This will provide © 2001 Advanced training Review the business, not just quality
a basis to meet ISO 9001’s requirements:
determine your process structure; ensure This key step (monitor by means of
4. Improve planning
the processes are put into use and mea- accuracy informed management review) is tradition-
sured; review their performance and take ally represented by a minimal, typically
action to improve and develop them. annual, senior management review of the
3. Monitor by 1. Set objectives,

Top management actions

*
means of informed
management
MONITOR
*
processes,
QMS. ISO 9001:2000 now requires that
the review generates decisions on key mat-
measures and
review resources ters such as process improvement, resource
The actions that ISO 9001 requires of top allocation, product improvement driven by
management are focused on continual customer requirements, and the establish-
improvement, which is one of eight man- ment of new improvement objectives.
agement principles that underpin the stan- 2. Run processes
dard (see Table 2). Management A. Measure Bearing in mind the importance of these
information effectiveness sorts of topics, you will probably not want
You are required to ensure that you contin- and efficiency to institute a separate review, knowing that
ually improve the: this sends signals to people in the organi-
• degree to which your products and ser- sation that quality is outside the normal
vices meet customer requirements activities of management.
D. Improve processes
• effectiveness of your processes (ie
improved results)
and procide
management
MEASURE * B. Record
the facts
• perceptions of your customers as to information Summary of management actions and benefits
how well requirements have been met
C. Analyse the • define ‘quality’ in the form of objectives to
facts: help internal communication of what is to be
Unfortunately, ‘continual improvement’ is understand achieved (product and service requirements,
turning into a bit of a buzz phrase, as what they are process effectiveness and efficiency, cus-
though it is a special form of improvement. telling us tomer perception etc.)
Even ISO 9001 asks you, confusingly, to • show that the business is central to the sys-
* importance to the discussion of tem by using your normal business language,
‘evaluate where continual (sic) improve-
senior management actions not ‘quality’ or ISO 9001 terms
ment of the effectiveness of the QMS can • produce a simple top-level big picture of your
be made’. All that the principle of contin- business processes to show how the system
ual improvement implies is that you: improves results by focusing on the improve-
ment of processes
• adopt an attitude that it is always pos-
sible to improve • demonstrate your commitment to continual
improvement by focusing on the next improve-
• develop the skills (such as looking for Cycle of improvement ment and by taking it seriously
causes of problems) and the tools (like • show that the ‘quality’ approach is becoming
simple charts and graphs) to be able to Figure 3 shows the basic steps that make instituted by integrating reviews into normal
improve systematically up the cycle of improvement embedded in management cycles

• always know what must improve next ISO 9001. Steps A to D constitute the • ensure that records are turned visibly into
management information so that people keep-
and how you will measure the MEASURE cycle which is carried out by ing them understand their importance
improvement the people who execute the processes of

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 ISO 9001:2000
ISO

It is not a requirement to conduct these • to record how well something hap-

reviews all in one mammoth meeting. pened. For example: we failed the pro-
Kyocera Mita UK, for example, deal with ject approval twice (for these
some of the requirements in business reasons…) before it was finally
process review meetings, typically focusing approved
on the performance and improvement of a
specific process. The essence of manage- The key purpose of the latter form of
ment review is to integrate the ISO 9001 record (the old ISO 9000 used to helpful-
requirements into the natural course of ly call them ‘quality records’!) is to capture Jim Wade has an international corporate back-
managing the business. Kyocera Mita UK, data that provides you with management ground, from project engineer to board-level man-
incidentally, carries this sort of integration information about how well - or otherwise agement with two IT multinationals. Wade is now a
right to the top of the business by struc- - your system is working and the progress director of Wantage based company, Advanced
Training. He initiated and continues to facilitate The
turing their business plan around the ele- that is being made in achieving your objec- Business Improvement Network (www.bin.co.uk),
ments of the excellence model. tives. It is not the purpose of any record to which offers free information and subsidised work-
provide ‘evidence’ to auditors - this is inci- shops on continual business improvement. He can
Records are for managers, dental Q be contacted at jim.wade@a-t.co.uk or on t: 0118
not for auditors 987 5120.

Kyocera Mita (UK) Ltd is the UK arm of Kyocera Cor-

Is there any record in your system with no poration's document solutions company, formed
clear business purpose? If so, get rid of it! from Kyocera's acquisition of Mita Copystar.
There are two basic purposes in business Kyocera Mita's products bring together Kyocera’s
for a record: network laser printer technology and the paper han-
dling expertise of Mita to allow control over all
• to record the fact that something hap- aspects of document management. Read more at:
pened. For example: the project was www.kyoceramita.co.uk
approved on November 12

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