Where Does Quality Begin?

摘要

Every day quality professionals struggle with the eternal question that keeps them employed: How do we make things better? At a recent meeting of an organization's quality professionals, I asked, "What do you believe the sources of your troubles are?" They all had detailed explanations for individual problems, but my question was about the quality system. They sat silent for a minute and then agreed they had a quality system certified by an accredited third party and approved by their customers. "How could the cause of our problems be the quality system?" they asked. I then asked what was probably the most difficult question of all: "Can you describe what your quality system is and how it prevents the troubles you are having?" This, of course, was greeted with more silence and finally agreement that their quality system was ISO 9001. And therein lies the problem. Many people―managers in particular―define the quality system of an enterprise as ISO 9001 or any identified standard their system is built around. ISO 9000:2000 defines a system as a "set of interrelated or interacting elements" (clause 3.2.1) and defines a quality management system as "a management system to direct and control an organization with regard to quality" (3.2.3).