ISO 9001: A Total Quality Approach

摘要

At Oxford Instruments, NMR Instruments our Total Quality programme focuses on process improvement and teamwork supported by in depth experience and on-going training. This is not, however, the traditional approach to ISO 9001 registration despite these philosophies being captured within the spirit of the standard. Process gives way to functional activities; training is overwhelmed by procedures and work instructions; teamwork is stifled by an urge to centralise, and experience and pride are rarely measured or captured in words. In approaching the simultaneous implementation of Total Quality and ISO 9001 the requirement was to succeed at both. This required utilising experience and training at the expense of detailed procedures and work instructions; de-centralisation of activity and a focus on teamwork, along with documentation and internal auditing that have a process not a functional basis. The result is a registered but exhausted organisation and a continuing Total Quality programme.