Articlr

Element 5.3 of ISO 9001 Standard requires an organization to establish a quality policy. More specifically, the standard requires: "The management" of an organization to "ensure that the quality policy":

- Is appropriate to the purpose of the organization;

- Includes a commitment to comply with requirements;

- Includes a commitment to continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS;

- Provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives;

- Is communicated and understood within the organization;

- Is reviewed for continuing suitability

You may wonder why we even started talking about this simple requirement of the standard. Well, while it is simple, my work as a consultant and an auditor convinced me that some time thi9sngs are not as simple as they appear. Most quality policies that I reviewed, did not meet all these requirements. A quality policy that meets all the requirements of the standard will help you to transfer required activities into your quality management system, and therefore, establishing compliance with the standard. What if our quality policy does not require a commitment to comply with requirements? In this case you may create your quality management system for any standard.

Let's take a look at a few examples of quality policies. If you open your browser and type "iso 9001 quality policy", you will see a list of companies that placed their quality policies on their Websites. For example, let's take a look at a few of them:

"[Company name] is committed to serve it's customers and meet their needs and expectations in the design, manufacture and supply of reliable and innovative technologies and products for [product descriptions] using modern management, engineering and material sciences. [Company name] is committed to continuing improvement of it's products and services to achieve increased customer satisfaction as well as to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Quality Management System and it's continuing improvement." Assuming that this quality policy is appropriate to the purpose of the organization and is communicated, these two requirements are met. Customer needs and expectations may be considered as requirements, so this requirement is also addressed. However, commitment to continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS, provision of a framework for reviewing quality objectives and commitment to review quality policy for continuing suitability are apparent.

Another one: "Quality is the heart of our business and key to our goal of total customer satisfaction. Therefore it is our policy to: Consistently provide valued products and services that meet the current and future needs of our customers and suppliers; support each other in the daily use of quality systems, processes and methods to improve every activity constantly and forever; continuously look for means to construct change which provides for significant improvements in quality beyond what can be achieved by continuous improvement methods alone." As you can see, this quality policy did not address any, I think, of the requirements of the standard. Can you imagine their quality manual or the entire quality management system?

These samples were not selected - I just pick them up from search results simply to demonstrate my point that most of quality policies do not meet requirements of ISO 9001 2000 standard. If you think these quality policies may be improved, wait a second! One of my clients, I had "pleasure" working with, came up with a quality policy that I cannot forget. "I improve the Quality of Patient Care and all things [Company name]" No! I am not joking and I did not misspelled or took any words out of this challenging example!