"A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction."
The process of ensuring that products meet the desired quality standards through testing, inspection, and other quality control measures throughout the supply chain.
Quality control: This is the process of ensuring that a product or service meets specific quality standards.
Quality management systems (QMS): QMS is a set of policies, processes, and procedures used to manage quality throughout an organization.
ISO 9001:2015: This is the international standard for quality management systems.
Lean Six Sigma: This is a methodology used to improve quality and reduce waste in manufacturing processes.
Continuous improvement: This involves identifying and implementing changes to improve processes and enhance quality.
Supply chain management: This is the management of the flow of goods and services from the point of origin to the point of consumption.
Total quality management (TQM): This is an approach that focuses on continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, and employee involvement in quality management.
Statistical process control (SPC): SPC is a method used to control and monitor processes to ensure they remain within set quality standards.
Root cause analysis: This is a problem-solving technique used to identify the underlying causes of quality issues.
Quality audits: These are reviews conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of an organization's quality management system.
Risk management: This involves identifying and assessing potential risks to quality and developing strategies to mitigate them.
Quality assurance training: This involves training employees on quality standards, processes, and procedures.
Quality metrics: These are performance indicators used to measure the effectiveness of an organization's quality management system.
Quality planning: This involves developing plans and strategies to ensure that quality standards are met.
Customer feedback: This involves collecting and analyzing feedback from customers to identify areas of improvement.
Supplier quality management: This is the management of suppliers to ensure that they meet quality standards.
Compliance management: This involves ensuring that an organization meets regulatory and legal requirements related to quality.
Document control: This involves managing and controlling documents related to quality processes and procedures.
Quality cost analysis: This is the analysis of the costs associated with quality issues and the implementation of quality improvement measures.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs): SOPs are procedures that describe how specific tasks should be performed to ensure consistent quality.
Supplier evaluation: Checking the quality of products and services from suppliers before making a purchase.
Incoming inspection: Checking the quality of products upon receipt from suppliers or internally produced goods.
Statistical process control: Monitoring production processes to identify and correct any variations that may negatively impact quality.
Product validation and verification: Conducting testing to ensure components, products, or software meet specified requirements.
Root cause analysis (RCA): Evaluating defects or non-conformances to determine the underlying cause and implement corrective actions.
Corrective and preventive actions (CAPA): Developing and implementing solutions to mitigate future quality issues.
Process improvement: Initiating continuous improvement activities to optimize workflows, reduce waste, and improve quality.
Quality audits: Conducting internal or external assessments of quality management systems, processes, and procedures.
Regulatory compliance: Ensuring that products and services comply with all relevant regulations and standards.
Risk management: Identifying potential risks and taking steps to minimize their impact on quality or product performance.
"It is aligned with an organization's purpose and strategic direction."
"It is expressed as the organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information, and resources needed to implement and maintain it."
"Early quality management systems emphasized predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling."
"Labor inputs were typically the most costly inputs in most industrialized societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the early signaling of problems via a continual improvement cycle."
"In the 21st century, QMS has tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives."
"Both investor and customer satisfaction and perceived quality are increasingly tied to these factors."
"Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide."
"The ISO 19011 audit regime applies to both and deals with quality and sustainability and their integration."
"Other QMS, e.g. Natural Step, focus on sustainability issues."
"The Natural Step approach assumes that other quality problems will be reduced as a result of the systematic thinking, transparency, documentation, and diagnostic discipline."
"The term 'Quality Management System' and the initialism 'QMS' were invented in 1991 by Ken Croucher, a British management consultant working on designing and implementing a generic model of a QMS within the IT industry."