The Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA) cycle is the foundation of all ISO management system standards. The cycle ensures development, continuous improvement and control of the management system in question.
The PDCA cycle ensures constant monitoring of your organisation’s effectiveness. It consists of the following:
- Plan – establishing the architecture of your quality management system is covered in clause 4.1 of the standard where it requires the identification of the processes, their success criteria, the inter-relationship between processes and the system for checking your results
- Do – implementing the plans and using the quality management system
- Check – reviewing whether the results are satisfactory at appropriate intervals against the ISO 9001 requirements
- Act – improving the quality management system or acting on the challenges and issues found in the reviews
An organisation will probably already have an effective quality management system but it is most likely informal and not well documented. A more systematic approach to achieving organisation’s objectives is provided by ISO 9001. This should not result in excessive bureaucracy or paperwork and lack of flexibility. It should not be a financial burden either. The quality management systems should be viewed as an investment and the return on the investment is the previously mentioned benefits.
Plan
The PDCA cycle starts with management because they identify appropriate processes and relevant areas of focus.
Process Identification:
An essential requirement for a practical system is an appropriate process and the key is starting with two processes which are Management and Operations. Next decide if sub-processes are required instead of working “bottom up”. An owner is required for every process who is responsible for the activities that relate to the success criteria of the process.
Planning and Review:
A quality manual and a number of documents outlining procedures are required before implementation in order to successfully plan your quality system. The areas of documentation are:
- Document control
- Records control
- Internal audits
- Non – conforming product
- Corrective action
- Preventative action
Fundamental direction:
The fundamental direction of the QMS should be established by owners or managers of your organisation using the quality policy. When designing the Quality Policy there are several aspects that have to be thought through such as:
- Strategy – should follow from the Quality Policy and the business environment
- Process criteria – should be aligned to the strategy
- Customer focus – system processes have to be designed to ensure customer satisfaction
- Resources – human, technological and environmental resources have to be put in place. The QMS requires that each company establish a way that their staff are competent
Do
The system has to be used to see that it works the way it was intended to. It will be necessary to use the procedures, forms, equipment and instructions in the way it was planned. This part of the process should be fairly easy to implement with the direction from your management and the assigned resources. It is important that the processes all along the supply chain should be planned and defined. This might include:
- Sales
- Purchasing
- Research and Development
- Manufacturing
- Delivery
Some of the steps might not apply to your organisation as ISO 9001 certification is designed for every type of organisation.
Check
The results of the QMS should be reviewed at appropriate intervals. When the system is new the intervals will be short but can be longer once the QMS becomes mature. The reporting of results against the process success criteria should be done regularly and then be used by management to ensure that the business is on track. The records should be appropriately designed to facilitate prompt recording as well as the early detection of problems.
The management review is a key milestone in evaluating the QMS and it is a meeting which assesses whether the QMS has succeeded in meeting:
- Strategic objectives
- Process success criteria
- ISO 9001 requirements
A key metric that has to be reviewed is perceived customer satisfaction. Handling complaints is not enough as customers could just move their businesses to a competitor. Internal audits are probably the most important characteristic of a successful quality management system. If an organisation does not carry out internal audits it is likely that the organisation will have their certification revoked as their system is probably out of control.
Act
Corrective action or preferably preventative action can be used to tackle challenges. Corrective actions must be recorded and preventative actions should be designed for recurring problems. The following questions should be asked as a checklist:
- Customer focus – Have you found out what the customer’s current and future need and expectations are at a strategic level?
- Quality policy – Does it really suit your organisation and reflect your customer’s expectations, your vision and mission – and the requirements of the standard?
- Objectives – Are all the objectives measurable and linked to both the processes and to the strategies?
- Plan the system – Have all the responsibilities been identified and communicated? Does everyone know what they need to do to contribute to the success of the business – and the QMS?
- Review at regular intervals – Are the results of the QMS being reviewed and compared against planned results? Is action being taken to improve areas where results are not quite as good as planned?
- Principles – management should review the 8 principles mentioned earlier and how well the system delivers against these.
Benefits of ISO/TS 16949 Automotive Quality Management System
