Quality and Environmental Management Report - Essay Example

?Quality and Environmental Management Report Explain the basic philosophy behind quality management systems and consider and explain what quality improvement tools the company may use. Quality management systems are aimed to improve services or products offered by an organization through a number of employed methodologies. Such a systematic measure for quality means that the company can now better meet the customer demands. The basic philosophy behind quality management systems focus on ways to decrease complexity without losing the quality of service or product instead of managing the employees better. The philosophy regards the processes to be problematic in general and not the employees. Customer satisfaction being the top aim in a quality management system, good leadership and power delegation at different employee levels for increased participation and teamwork (Avery & Zabel 1997; Cianfrani & West 2009). To achieve total quality management, processes and tools must be integrated with each other and the system itself to be recursively controlled by quality assurance checks (Avery & Zabel 1997). Inspite of developing quality control methodologies, many European and American companies have not been able to attain much benefit from them (Silvestro 2001). This is mostly because of lack of insight in implementation (Belohav 1993) and mismatches between processes and problems (Wang 2004). This means quality management should be treated as a due process with careful choosing of tools. There is a number of quality assurance tools that can be deployed to support a good quality management system for the house manufacturing company. Since the company is producing prefinished products to support the on site construction, it is essential that the prefinished components are of good quality as evident by the problem occurring for the company. The basic tools to be deployed for the prefinished products range from production floor to advanced technologies and methods including ISO 9001, total quality management and Six sigma method. Seeing that the company already has a production floor as shown in the brief, it can be improved by adapting to Lean manufacturing in addition to these can help the company reduce the costs as well as increase the quality of their products by eliminating any processes and methods that are not useful for the finished product and customer demand. This will be a sure way to save space in the allocated workshops, clean up the processes and have only the customer oriented processes running. With the continuous improvement from total quality management and statistical controls of the Six sigma method, the defects in the prefabrications should be eliminated. As far as the actual causes of the defects occurring in the products are well handled and eliminated, the finished houses will be of good quality. 2. Plan and describe an appropriate ISO 9001 compliant Quality Management System (QMS), which the organization could employ to improve their quality problems. By meeting unique customer requirements and avoiding non-conformities ISO 9001 can help the company achieve full customer satisfaction (Cianfrani & West 2009). To comply with the industrial standards ISO quality standard improves internal operations and also covers the design research and development. Since the company’s construction is tied to the production of the prefinished products, a holistic approach is the best way to proceed. An appropriate quality management system to comply with a comprehensive set of standards to ensure quality for the customers would be to set up an appropriate organization structure for the company (Case Management Advisor 2004). An appropriate organization structure is a basic set of compliant quality management system that ISO 9001 gives. The organization should start from the top of the organization structure to improve the processes by fixing the processes management structure. The top management should be given clear policies to fully communicate the required products and customer requirements to the staff and ensure process safety and correctness. This should be followed by a process management system that allows quality assurance officers to monitor the progress during the production to save time and resources. If the defects are corrected during the production, they are likely to cost less and be corrected quicker without any loss of goodwill on the customer side (Cianfrani & West 2009). Looking at the inputs of each employee in the workforce as a team determines the valuable output of the team as a whole. This not only ensures a competent process but also recognizes each employee’s part in the team with due responsibility on each one (Case Management Advisor 2004). The ISO standard organization structure can be supplemented by evaluating the vendors for the raw material, analysing the quality of received raw material before putting it up on the production floor and having a quality assurance contract with the suppliers. This will ensure that there is no time wasted in returning and re procuring the raw material when the supplier is also following good quality standards. As a result Just in time (JIT) production can be achieved to make up for the costs of quality control. ISO 9001 documents flexible enough to allow for quick changes in processes whenever needed (Case Management Advisor 2004) which means the implementation of this quality management system will not hinder the company’s own quality improvement standards or methodologies and can be run as a supplement to them. Furthermore, it will ensure defectless products and a certification that will further give the customer the confidence in the company’s products. 3. Explain what is meant by independent third party certification to the standard and how the organization can become ISO 9001 certified. Your own production testing and assurances might not be enough. It might be wise to use the credibility of well known testers after making sure that you conform to their standards. Getting your processes, production cycle, product quality, technical standards tested by an independent third party means that a neutral entity has now tested your company’s essentials and is vouching for you by giving you a certification. Such certifications are often required to get into partnerships with certain companies or groups, where as might significantly benefit the company generally as well. The third party that is testing your processes or products is mostly a recognized organization or a representative of a recognized organization specializing in this. Once the need for such a certification is determined; be it the market or customer demand, risks of noncompliance, government regulations or the result of a contract requirement, the third party can be invited over to the facility to assess and grade the company for the certification. These can include third party inspection and testing both. The inspection of processes and testing of products allow the certifiers to judge the aspiring organization’s standards and match it with the compliance standards for the certification. To acquire the ISO 9001 certification, an organization must first assess the need for the certification as explained above. Once that is done, the third party is contacted to test and inspect the organization’s facilities. The employees of the third party company may include testers, inspectors and may employee surveillance of the host company to review in processes standards. The reviewers compile a complete report for the host company to mark the standards on which the company’s production is standing. It might be so that the issues that are pointed out by the testers may have to be resolved before the certification is awarded. After assuring that all processes and products comply with the ISO 9001 standard, the third party then awards the certification to the company and continuously checks if the given standards are being maintained, from time to time. Although this might included compliance oriented testing of the products or services both before and after reaching the market, this assures that the organization’s products or services are recognized as certified and of good quality by the customers due to the certification. 4. Discuss any relevant legislation and regulations that the company will have to comply with and explain how compliance with these can be incorporated into the ISO 9001 QMS and kept under review to take account of changes in legislation. The government as also, often, set different standards for products that go in the market. Certifications like ISO 9001 are often under the umbrella of such legislation and have legal impacts. Before employing ISO 9001, the company should know that the certification is voluntary; the company is not required by law to get ISO 9001 hence not resulting any sanctions from the government and the authorities. This being said, once the company decides to get the ISO 9001 certification, the company should note the dynamics of the legal impacts. The relationship between the independent body certifying the company and the government authorities should be noted by the company and checked to correctness if the body itself is authorized and accredited by the government to issue such a certification. Due to the liability issues that come in with the product or services after the certification, it might be ambiguous for the company or the company might be using it to their advantage that the certification implies they do not have any more product liability as they have been certified for the quality. This however should be taken into consideration with the legal impacts in mind. The current EU legislation implies that the supplier will be treated as a producer for selling defective products, under the law (Dir : 85/374 CEE as modified by Dir. 99/34). It is also implied by the law that due product liability is on the producer for selling defective products inspite of the producer have been following due regulations for production of the given product. This means that there is no instance in the EU law which exonerates the manufacturer or the service provider from liability simply on acquiring an ISO 9001 certification by a third party inspection and testing. The aim of the certification is to ensure and prove a standard or quality, maintaining it is the responsibility of the manufacturer. This however is further explained that the producer or provider will not be held liable in case the product was found defective only after it was already put in circulation by him or if the commercial scientific advancement in general was not enough for the manufacturer to discover the defect that caused the problem (Dir : 85/374 CEE as modified by Dir. 99/34). To incorporate these legal impacts in the organization’s ISO 9001 Quality management system, the organization must keep a note of the on going legislation related to the processes and standards of production as well as make sure that the products do not get any defects putting liability on the company. As previously explained, employing lean manufacturing and six sigma technologies, it would be best suited to integrate ISO 9001 along with its legal impacts in to the organization’s production methods. 5. Explain how the ISO 9001 QMS can be effectively managed on ongoing basis. To effectively manage ISO 9001, on ongoing basis, giving it a good start is essential. The firm must start to operate and effectively integrate the ISO 9001 standards at micro and macro level (Denison 2001). The transition of the firm from the previous standards to ISO 9001 matters with respect to not losing the quality during the transition. The aim of the firm should be to integrate the market concepts and the new standards in the start to support ongoing management of the standards and the quality managements system. This involves, the production, installation and servicing of the products on the production floor as well as on the site. To keep up with the required standards of ISO 9001, the company should employ total quality management. This will ensure that the company is not losing the quality to depreciation and keeps on improving the processes as well as the products in line with the growing market forces and the competition (Young & Nie 1996). In order for the quality management system to meet its objectives the criteria and the methods need to ensure that the company has established quality and eliminated defects from their products. Such trend has been observed in many company’s focusing on quality and its continuous monitoring to comply with the standards of not only ISO 9001 but also other ISO certifications, and manage them on ongoing basis (Journal of Technology 2013). In addition to ongoing monitoring of the processes for quality assurance, the company might also employ surveys to know the perception of the customers so as to facilitate the ISO standards and their maintenance (Bashir et. al 2008). The main aim of ISO 9001 systems was to gain from the experience (Gupta 2010). Preparing good quality manuals and documentation gives the company an upper hand at knowing what they are doing (Gupta 2010). In essential, ISO 9001 is a business tool to be used by the executives rather than for business verification purposes, hence to correctly succeed in implementing and making full use of the standard, it should be treated as such in the day to day routine (Gupta 2010). References AVERY, CHRISTINE; ZABEL, DIANE (1997). The Quality Management Sourcebook: An International Guide to Materials and Resources. Routledge. Print. CIANFRANI, CHARLES A.; WEST, JOHN E. (2009). Cracking the Case of ISO 9001:2008 for Service: A Simple Guide to Implementing Quality Management to Service Organizations (2nd ed.). Milwaukee: American Society for Quality. p. 5-??7. Print. ISBN 978-0-87389-762-4. SILVESTRO, R. (2001). Towards a contingency theory of TQM in services: How implementation varies on the basis of volume and variety. The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 18(3), 254-288. Print. BELOHAV, J.A. (1993). Quality, strategy, and competitiveness. California Management Review, Spring, 55-67. Print. WANG, T. (2004). From general system theory to total quality management. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 4(1/2), 394-402. Print. CASE MANAGEMENT ADVISOR (September 1, 2004). ISO 9001:2000 registration improves processes through standardization. A Thomson Healthcare Company. Print. EU LEGISLATION. DIR : 85/374 CEE as modified by Dir. 99/34. DENISON, DANIEL ET. AL (2001). Managing Organizational Change in Transition Economies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Print. YOUNG, SCOTT T.; NIE, WINTER (1996). Managing Global Operations: Cultural and Technical Success Factors. Quorum Books. Print. (January 29, 2013). Advanced BioMedical Technologies Inc.'s Quality Management System Receives ISO 13485:2003 Certification. Journal of Technology. Print. BASHIR, HAMDI A; ALZEBDEH, KHALID; RASHID, MAKI K (January 1, 2008). Survey Results on Knowledge, Perception and Attitude of Consumers Towards ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Standards. IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings. Print. GUPTA, PRAVEEN (March 1, 2010). Barrier to excellence: ISO 9001 deployment: in order to build an effective management system, ISO 9001 must be an implementation-friendly business tool. Quality. 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