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Quality Assurance Using ISO 9001 Continuous Improvement

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For virtually every business, an ongoing quality improvement process is a key component to improving operations and employee morale. Businesses that make a concerted effort to continuously improve operations ultimately gain a competitive edge.

Market dynamics constantly change and clearly defined QIP (Quality Improvement Program) forces key personnel to take an objective look at business processes that are essential to keeping your company profitable.

More importantly, quality improvement is an ongoing process aimed at keeping your company ahead of the competition. This process includes continuously reviewing and improving business operations and implementing incremental changes as they develop to promote ongoing quality improvements.

Incremental changes are easier to implement and measure. Incremental quality improvement efforts can include finding ways to reduce production and/or operating costs or improve time efficiency in a single business process.

Font-line employees can be a great source for incremental quality improvements. Try this: Put a suggestion box in the break room and you may be surprised with the quality improvement suggestions employees come up with.

A simple suggestion box empowers employees to make suggestions on improving the quality of their work and is perhaps one of the smartest moves business owners can make to build cohesion between managers and their subordinates.

Another aspect of process improvement is redesign. This approach is more far-reaching than incremental improvements. Oftentimes, these types of quality enhancements encompass multiple business processes and require cross-departmental cooperation to plan and implement. These types of changes must be carefully planned to implement properly and in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Businesses must be careful how the QIP is implemented. Too often, the QIP only target clearly defined outcomes and doesn't focus on the means needed to generate the desired outcome. Managers are always looking at the bottom line, but the primary focus needs to be on changing the equation that generates the bottom line.

A quality improvement committee should be established to monitor the ongoing QIP process at your business. The committee must prioritize critical business processes targeted for improvement and should meet at least monthly to review the performance metrics of your company. This team could also be tasked with keeping your business focused on continuous quality improvement.

This committee should see the whole picture of the QIP effort and realize the importance of transparent communications, sticking to the plan and focusing on the critical business processes that can be improved.

Performance metrics should be defined. Performance metrics objectively measure specific activities (events) within daily business operations. Discovering how to objectively improve core business processes linked to these activities (events) is imperative.

To get started, you should consider the following six steps:

Planning - This is the first step in a true QIP where critical processes are identified for improvement. In this stage, past business performance data (customer service functions, sales functions, operational functions, etc.) are analyzed to provide preliminary improvement opportunities. Critical processes are identified, and improvements to these processes can be classified as incremental or those that require redesign. Some examples: Why are inbound telephone calls abandoned? Is there continuity in our overall sales process? Is our production equipment being operated correctly?
Trial - The second step is to initiate a trial run of the proposed changes. This effort should be implemented with careful measurements and assessments to determine if the solution should be a permanent part of business operations. It is important to make trial runs quickly; planning is meaningless unless it is acted upon.
Check - The third step is to collect information from the trial run and compare the results with historical performance.
Action - Now that a trial run has been reviewed and found to be beneficial, your business should act on it by making the appropriate changes to either a process, procedure or company policy. This step involves communicating changes to all affected personnel regarding the new process or procedure. Of course, business performance is continuously monitored at this stage, and findings are reported to the quality improvement committee.
Annual Summary - At the end of the fiscal calendar year, an evaluation of the QIP is conducted by the quality improvement committee. This summary outlines the goals and objectives of your organization throughout the year and the progress that has been made toward those goals. This summary should be communicated to decision-makers throughout your business. This is essential to keeping everyone on the same page and reinforcing that the company is committed to delivering quality products and services to customers.
Collaboration - After the annual summary is submitted, the committee should collaborate and solicit ideas for future improvement. Remember, QIP is an ongoing process. At this point, the cycle repeats and goes back to the planning stage for the next fiscal calendar year.

Following these steps will ultimately improve the quality of your core business processes. Employees take notice of the enhancements, even if they are not directly involved in the quality improvement program. Making the effort to improve quality informs these employees that management is addressing concerns and taking action to improve business operations.

Ultimately, all facets of your organization benefit. Employees tend to perform better and in the end, your company improves the likelihood of becoming more profitable.

About the Author: Michael G. Perry has more than 20 years' professional experience in management, supervision, consulting and writing technical documentation related to business process, policies and procedures.

He's worked for companies like Fedex, Ingram Micro and Merck Medco. Find out more about how he can help you with the Quality Improvement Process.

Reproduction prohibited without prior written consent.

About the Author

Michael G. Perry has over 2 decades professional experience in management, IT consulting, writing articles and technical documentation related to business process, policies and procedures.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in management from California State University at Long Beach & Is Fedex LEAP (Leadership Evaluation & Assessment Process) Certified.

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