The Quality Area

This area has been added to the website to disseminate information on quality (quality management history, gurus, TQM theories, process improvement, organisational excellence etc.).

If you have material which would make a useful addition to this page, please send it to editor@therqa.com

Guidelines for auditing management systems ISO 19011 revised

In November 2011 ISO 19011:2002 'Guidelines on quality and/or environmental management systems auditing' was replaced by ISO 19011:2011 'Guideline for auditing management systems'
The main changes to the guidance are:

• The scope has been boadened from the auditing of quality and environmental management systems to the auditing of any management systems
• Remote audit methods and the concept of risk have been introduced
• Confidentiality has been added as a new principle
• Clauses 5 (Managing an audit programme), 6 (Performing an audit) and 7 (Competence and evaluation of auditors) have been reorganised
• Additional information has been added to a new Annex B (Additional guidance for auditors for planning and conducting audits), resulting in the removal of help boxes
• The competence determination and evaluation process has been strengthened
• Illustrative examples of discipline-specific knowledge and skills have been included in a new Annex A

To visit the ISO website click here

BSi/ISO Committee

RQA is represented on the British Standards Institute (BSi) Quality Management and Quality Assurance Procedures Committee. This allows us to represent the views of our members in the development of BS and ISO standards and guidelines, and to keep our members updated on the latest revisions and developments.

ISO 9001 has now started the revision process that will see the drafting of the next version starting at the end of 2012. The design specification sets out the objectives to include:

• Provide a stable core set of requirements for the next 10 years or more
• Remain generic, and relevant to all sizes and types of organisation operating in any sector
• Maintain current focus on effective process management to produce desired outcomes
• Take account of changes in quality management systems practices and technology since the last major revision in 2000
• Reflect changes in the increasingly complex, demanding and dynamic environments in which organisations operate
• Apply Annex SL of the ISO Directives to enhance compatibility and alignment with other ISO management system standards
• Facilitate effective organisational implementation and effective conformity assessment by first, second and third parties
• Use simplified language and writing styles to aid understanding and consistent interpretations of its requirements

ISO 10018:2012 Quality Management - Guidelines on People Involvement and Competence was released at the end of August 2012. The document provides guidance on engaging people in an organisation's quality management system, and on enhancing their involvement and competence within it

ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group

This website has been established as an on-line source of papers and presentations on auditing quality management systems. The ideas, examples and explanations given reflect the process based approach that is essential for auditing the requirements of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems - Requirements.

Click here to visit the site

Research needs quality management system

World Health Organisation - TDRnews This article was orginally published in the May 2010 issue of TDRnews, and is used with the permission from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), which is executed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO.

Click here to view the article

UK Department of Trade and Industry

Below are links to 13 documents produced by the Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom. These free resources are an excellent guide to the quality management area, for practical application in organisations, for study and learning and for teaching and training others.

These free materials are provided by permission of the UK Department of Industry - now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - which is gratefully acknowledged. The branding on the materials is now obsolete but the quality content is unaffected and the materials remain relevant for training, learning and reference. The materials listed below are subject to Crown Copyright.

01. The Evolution of Quality (Crown Copyright)

02. The Original Quality Gurus (Crown Copyright)

03. Total Quality Management (Crown Copyright)

04. Process Understanding and Improvement (Crown Copyright)

05. Tools and Techniques for Process Improvement (Crown Copyright)

06. People Development and Teamwork (Crown Copyright)

07. Quality Management Systems (Crown Copyright)

08. Performance Measurement (Crown Copyright)

09. A Framework for Excellence (Crown Copyright)

10. Self-Assessment and Awards (Crown Copyright)

11. Benchmarking (Crown Copyright)

12. Implement - from Quality to Organisational Excellence (Crown Copyright)

13. Six Sigma Fact Sheet (Crown Copyright)

Other useful links

www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/quality-gurus

www.businessballs.com/qualitymanagement.htm

"It is appropriate to note the passing of Joseph Juran, a seminal figure in the history of quality management, who died 28th February 2008, aged 103. Juran did not only teach the Japanese about quality management, he was also arguably the first quality expert to emphasise that no quality management system works unless people are empowered and committed to take responsibility for quality - as an ongoing process - effectively for quality to become part of people's behavious and attitudes - an ethos."

Alan Chapman (2008)

European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)

EFQM is a non-for-profit membership foundation who have spent over 20 years sharing what works between their member organisations as a way to help them implement their strategies. Through their network of members comprising private and public organisations of every size and sector, EFQM applies its know-how and extracts outstanding approaches by engaging with executives and front-line managers.

Click here for a link to EFQM