A quality policy is a brief statement outlining an organisation’s commitment to quality and establishing its strategic direction in achieving quality objectives.
Its purpose is to provide a framework for responsible quality management that ensures that an organisation’s products or services consistently meet or exceed customer satisfaction.
Implementing a quality policy statement allows companies to create procedures for the organisation’s employees and stakeholders to establish a common goal of achieving the organisation’s strategic direction and objectives.
A full quality statement or quality policy also communicates the organisation’s quality objectives to relevant interested parties, including the employees, customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities.
Your business or organisation must establish a quality policy to demonstrate your commitment to product quality and continual improvement, giving you a competitive advantage among your customers and stakeholders.
The policy outlines the principles and values that help decision-making processes, ensuring that decisions align with the business or organisation’s objectives.
This helps ensure that an organisation’s products or services maintain high quality.
What is ISO Quality Policy?
The ISO Quality Policy is a brief statement of a company’s commitment to quality, as outlined in compliance with the ISO 9001:2015 standard.
ISO 9001:2015 is an international standard for quality management systems that provides strategic direction to ensure that their products and services consistently achieve or exceed customer requirements and regulatory requirements.
The ISO Quality Policy is typically a set of documented information that outlines the company’s overall approach to attaining the mission statement and meeting applicable requirements.
This quality policy will be released as a controlled document and be part of the company’s quality management system. ISO standards require that the quality policy is constantly applicable to the organisation.
Thus, a review and update on the quality policy is necessary if there are any changes concerning the organisation or relevant requirements of stakeholders.
To attain the ISO 9001:2015 certification for a sound quality management system, most companies must comply with the quality management statement to ensure that quality objectives, quality control, and quality assurance are in place.
The ISO Quality Policy is an important part of an organisation’s quality management system, as it provides the company with a framework for setting quality objectives, measuring performance, and ensuring that everyone in the organisation is working toward the same company’s strategic direction.
What is quality control?
Quality control (QC) verifies that a product or service meets specific quality requirements or standards.
It is a set of activities and techniques that are used to monitor and measure the quality of a product or service during and after its production or delivery.
Quality control aims to identify defects or non-conformities in the product or service and take corrective action to prevent these issues from recurring in the future.
What is quality assurance?
Quality assurance (QA) is a set of activities and processes to ensure a product or service meets specific quality requirements or standards.
It is a proactive approach to quality management that focuses on preventing defects and errors from occurring in the first place, rather than simply identifying and correcting them after they have occurred.
Quality assurance aims to ensure that products or services are produced or delivered consistently and reliably and meet customer requirements, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
How do you write a quality policy?
Here are some general steps to consider when writing a quality policy statement:
- Define your organisation’s commitment to quality:
Begin by outlining your organisation’s commitment to providing quality products or services. This could include a statement on your organisation’s values, mission, and vision. For example, the statement can include your commitment to continually improving service and compliance with global regulations. - Identify the scope of your quality policy:
Identify the product, service, or process your quality policy applies to, and make sure the policy is specific and measurable. - Set quality objectives:
These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These objectives should align with your organisation’s overall goals and be reviewed and updated regularly. - Define your approach to quality management:
Outline how your organisation will manage quality, including how you will ensure customer requirements are met, how you will comply with regulatory requirements, and how you will continuously improve your processes and systems. - Assign roles and responsibilities:
Assign roles and responsibilities for implementing and maintaining your quality policy, and make sure everyone in your organisation understands their responsibilities. - Communicating the quality policy:
Communicate your quality policy to all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and suppliers. - Monitor and review your quality policy:
Regularly monitor and review it to ensure it remains relevant and effective. Use metrics to track progress towards your quality objectives and adjust your approach as needed.
Who is responsible to define the quality policy?
The quality policy is typically defined by top management in an organisation.
For example, executives and senior leaders can decide the organisation’s direction, goals, and priorities.
The quality policy should reflect the organisation’s overall mission and vision and should be aligned with its strategic objectives.
Top management sets the tone and direction for quality management in the organisation, and the quality policy is critical to that.
They should ensure that the quality policy is communicated effectively to all employees and stakeholders and consistently reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the organisation’s business environment and quality management practices.
Top management must also ensure that the quality policy is consistent with relevant laws, regulations, and standards, such as the ISO 9001 standard for quality management systems.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the importance of a quality policy lies in its ability to guide an organisation’s behaviour towards achieving its quality objectives and building a culture of continuous improvement.
It helps to communicate the organisation’s commitment to quality to internal and external stakeholders, ensures compliance with regulations and standards, and helps create and build trust and confidence among customers in its products or services.
At Stendard, we have experience in helping small businesses attain ISO certification. If you have doubts about implementing the quality policy in your company, feel free to book a consultation with us.
