By Mark Swanson, QRx Partner
There has been some discussion around the amendment published in several of the ISO management system standards (including ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) and the revisions in progress in ISO 9000 and ISO 9001. Many are concerned about how this can affect their organization. My consistent response is a question: " What is your company doing today to ensure your culture is aligned with the principles of quality?” In other words, does your company have a ‘good’ culture of quality?
To explain, many people think quality is responsible for fixing problems within an organization. Often, the quality group looks to make examples of people with ‘bad’ behavior, and we do this through the use of CAPA, nonconforming products, reportable issues, or other highly visible activities. This is the "firefighting" that happens within organizations and brings a “hero” mentality where quality engineering saves the day.
A better, more proactive, and preventive approach involves the establishment of a culture of quality. Instead of taking out the corrective tools, what if we focus on the preventive tools? If we involve everyone in making quality products where we all work together to focus on delivering excellent products. This requires us to work together, communicate across the organization, and not seek who is responsible but look for systematic solutions to prevent those problems. This requires intentional, dedicated leaders, such as top management, within the organization who focus on the processes and system rather than individual responsibility and blame.
QRx Partners seeks to partner with others who value trust, focus on the client, and enable self-sufficiency through a risk-based process approach. Please join our Founding Partners, Mark and Steve, at the end of March for our first webinar as we explore this and other subjects throughout the year in our quarterly webinar series.
Click here to register for the webinar by midnight, Thursday, March 28th.
