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Basics Relating To Quality Management Systems

By Marcia Marks


The importance quality management systems (QMS), to an organisation cannot be overemphasized. It is the tool that helps the organisation to know whether it is moving forward, backwards or is not making any progress. QMS refer to an assembly of business processes aimed at meeting set objectives. QMS is in form of policies, procedures, quality manual, organizational structure and responsibilities, resources among others. While early systems put emphasis on predictable results of a product, current systems focus on team cooperation and dynamics. QMS has further evolved to incorporate sustainability and transparency initiatives.

A QMS process is an organisational element whereby compliance and certification are can only attained when given processes are clearly defined. Examples of such processes include calibration, production planning, and order processing, internal audit, corrective and preventive action. The most widely recognised QMS regimes of all time, the ISO 9000 employs quality, sustainability and their integration. Other QMS like Natural Step put emphasis on sustainability issues with the assumption that challenges will be minimised by transparency, systematic thinking, documentation and discipline.

QMS play a very vital role in ensuring that medical equipment is properly functioning. This guarantees safety and efficacy when dealing with different aspects of patient care. Each manufacturer needs to come up with their QMS that can be used to ensure that what they manufacture is properly checked and tested before being sold. The buyers of this equipment should also have their own systems that will be used to test the equipment as it is brought in. Apart from equipment testing, the other important aspect of validation is personnel training.

When developing such a system, it is important conduct research that seeks to understand the business environment. Organisations should aim at having an in depth knowledge of the needs and expectations of clients. Increased revenue and market share is achieved through a fast and flexible response to opportunities in the market. One of the major ways to obtain efficacy in utilisation of resources is through winning the loyalty of customers by ensuring complete satisfaction.

The principle of leadership also needs to be applied to establish direction and unity of purpose in an organisation. One of the benefits of good leadership is that poor or lack of communication will be minimised. With this principle, the needs of all involved parties including customers, employees, suppliers and financiers are considered.

The process should always be considered as a whole from beginning to end. This will ensure that there is accountability and greater responsibility both at individual and organization in the past. The efficiency of QMS implementation is also easy to asses when there is a proper process in place.

The system approach to management requires identification, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system. This provides confidence to interested parties with regard to effectiveness, consistency and efficacy of the organisation. Such a system leads to continual improvement of the system through evaluation and measurement.

Quality management systems must always use facts in the decision making process. All the available data on various processes in a firm must be properly collected, analysed and interpreted. The data should be used to guide the changes in the firm.




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