2.4.3 Maintaining the system
Once the system is implemented, it has to be maintained. Formal procedures have to be designed to check its continued effectiveness, and changes that may be desirable to improve it designed and put in place. A plan for regular checks, or audits, must be drawn up. Internal audits, carried out by the company to self assess, need to be carried out by adequately trained personnel. For this to be possible, senior management commitment is obviously essential.
Each procedure needs to be scrutinised. Any shortcomings or possible improvements are addressed through corrective action. It must be remembered that the system exists to achieve customer satisfaction so that not only are present customers held but also new customers are attracted. Feedback from customers has to be actively sought. New staff have to be properly trained and guided through their learning period to achieve the company's working standards.
Procedures manuals
Maintenance and continuity of the system is commonly documented in a series of procedures manuals. The management manual can be an overarching volume which includes:
- a description of what the manual sets out to do with regard to stated quality objectives and policies;
- a description of the organisation of the company and inter-relation between the various parts or sections;
- responsibilities of corporate and line managers;
- the level of authority each individual holds for each function described;
- management processes for information feedback and a review of the quality management system;
- procedures and personnel policies of the company;
- definitions of the various operations carried out;
- maintenance procedures to be carried out;
- insurance claims procedures; and
- guidance on general administration.
Similarly, the safety manual can be expected to lay down:
- the company's safety, health and environmental objectives and policies,
- the safe management structure, accident and incident reporting procedures,
- the emergency organisation, training drills and exercises to be conducted,
- general safety information,
- operations related hazards and precautions,
- pollution regulations and prevention, and
- general security in standard and special conditions.
All the manuals need to have a system of correction. Keeping this in mind, a binder design is most suited and widely used. Based on feedback, both internal and external, and any changes in legislation, practice of trade, etc., changes have to be made to the manuals. A record of these changes has to be kept. This can be in the shape of a table which lists the date on which the change is made and the specification of the change. The page affected by the change is removed and is replaced by the new page issued as correction. The record of corrections is checked by auditors when assessing the QA system.
Before the manuals are accepted for use in the company, they have to be approved by a responsible member of management, senior enough to take responsibility for the procedures contained therein.
The top of each page in any manual identifies itself completely. It carries the company's name, logo, name of the manual to which it belongs, the section, page number, date issued, revision number and approval authority.
Since the system relies on declaring what is done, and then following declared procedures, adherence to documented procedures is critical to maintenance of the Quality Assurance system. In addition to satisfying ISO standard requirements, documentation of procedures is useful for other reasons of good corporate management, which include:
- creating a data bank of knowledge and experience;
- improving on what is currently being done;
- establishing present standards and set tolerances;
- defining efficient performance; and
- avoiding delays in decision making.
We see that the documentation of the system keeps a record of the processes that should be followed, a record of what actually happens and how any changes are recorded and tracked. The auditing of the system by the independent third party follows the system whereby declared procedures are actually practiced and the feedback system from customers and employees for continuous improvement is effective.
Activity 2.3
In the space below, list the steps that lead to getting ISO 9000 accreditation and the key factors of each stage.
The process can be quite long and take from a few months to over a year to implement and be finally accredited. It can also be quite costly. Some research (e.g. Grewal, 1997) indicates that the cost to an organisation depends on its size and can vary from between 4-6% of the annual turnover for small companies to 1-2% for large organisations. This differential in cost can act as a disincentive for small organisations; this factor is addressed to some extent by the classification bodies who administer differential costs for companies, depending on their size.
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