Do You Consider Your Quality Policy Valuable to your Organization? (Poll)

I'm curious to know how others view the value of their organization's Quality Policy and how well it has been communicated and indoctrinated into everyone's life at work. Our organization, for one, really only has a Quality Policy in the Quality Manual to satisfy the ISO requirement.

If you think your organization has a powerful or motivating Quality Policy or that your organization really leverages and rallys around, please provide it and explain how you are able to do this.

This thread should prove interesting, though I have some preconcieved ideas about the outcome of the poll.

I replied It's not valuable at all, but we have made an honest attempt at communicating to the rest of the organization.

The policy is readily available and people know where to find it. We do not require our staff to learn it by the letter but we do want them to "get the message". They get it, but the policy in itself has little to do with that. The real reason is an abundance (apart from written procedures) of information about our QMS, why we have it, why we ask them to do this and that and what they have to gain from it.

Try fitting that into a policy...

/Claes

I voted "Somewhat Valuable" simply because it must set up a philosophy within the company. For most of us a fitting quality policy is nothing more than "We will do what we must to maintain customer sat and stay in business". We can not control the increase in raw materials, we can not control the cost of labor, especially in a union shop, we can not control the cost of delivery, etc. etc., but customers still require a cost decrease over the life of a contract. The only way to make ends meet is to improve internally.
We have had discussions on How do you exceed customer expectations of On-Time Delivery so the ever present exceed customer expectations is not really achievable in all areas. So Claes I agree with you on

information about our QMS, why we have it, why we ask them to do this and that and what they have to gain from it.

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For companies that "get it" and really desire to "Be the Best" the standards are nothing but a starting point or a kick-off.

Like any tool used within a Management System, it's usefullness is dependent on how it is utilized. A Quality Policy developed for the sake of meeting a 'shall' and/or to look pretty hanging up on a wall is going to be useless.

Our Quality Policy is posted around the plant and appears in our bi-monthly company newsletter. It is part of every new (and transferred) employee's Management System orientation.

But no one has it memorized.

It is a tool to help remind employees of their role and importance within our Management System and in the fulfillment of all requirements (Customer, statutory, regulatory, etc.).

The Quality Policy, in conjunction with our Objectives, Basic Values and Beliefs, Quality Slogan, Key Indicators, and Strong Goals form the base from which an employee undestands his/her part within the organization.

RCBeyette said:

Like any tool used within a Management System, it's usefullness is dependent on how it is utilized.

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I agree completely. It is what you make it, so I voted "other". There is not enough information considering who's quality policy we are talking about.

Generally speaking, though, to me it is at the top of the documentation pyramid, so from that standpoint it is important, but after the policy amd manual are written, how often are they actually read?

I selected Other...Our original policy (in bold red) was created to satisfy ISO 1994. We have a banner in the shop with our policy. People were given "quality cards" back in 2000. It was a simple/short enough policy that we expected people to more or less memorize it and be able to quote it back to an auditor. We also had like 10 very fancy objective which were NOT measurable, but they were obviously good enough for PJ and ISO 1994. *shrug* I didn't write them...

I expanded our policy to "comply" with the expectation of ISO 2000. I also did not want to eliminate the "core" of our quality policy.

Do people know the "core" of the quality policy. I believe the answer is yes.

Is the policy effective? Not sure we're still new to measuring and analyzing the effectiveness of our system...

Does it drive the "quality/business" programs, yes. We really do strive for defect-free products, and we do work very hard to ship on-time (or make concessions if we can't).
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Not to sound to rude, but our "quality department/policy" does not run our business or really determine how we make products. Good parts, on-time, and customer satisfaction should be the focus of EVERY company. Depending on your company ISO may just be a seal of approval no matter how hard you work at improving your self. We want more than a certificate, but we're going to run the business as we need to with our with out ISO.

The early results are in.....

Well, the early results of this poll are in, and while the sample size is small, about 70% of us have said that having a Quality Policy is of little or no value to their organization. Do these results suprise anyone? I, for one, am not surprised.

There are several reasons for this, but one of the reasons I find it of little value is because of the potential redundency between a QP and an organization's Mission Statement. In our case, I find our Quality Policy similar to our Mission Statement, and we put more "stock" into our Mission Statement than we do the Quality Policy. Don't most organizations have Mission Statements established? If so, why couldn't an organization establish a Mission Statement that:

• is appropriate to the purpose of the organization (that would almost seem to be a given; why create a Mission Statement that is not apprpriate to the purpose of the organzation),
• is communicated and understood within the organization (again, this would seem to be almost academic since most org's are going to want to publicize their Mission Statement if it means anything at all),
• provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives, and
• is reviewed for continuing suitability?

These four elements are all requirements of a Quality Policy in the ISO standard. The only element in the ISO requirement that wouldn't seem to fit nicely in an organization's mission statement is to include a commitment to comply with requirements and continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system.

Do any of you know an organization who has used or has tried to use their Mission Statement as a Quality Policy?

Tom

I didn't do the poll thing because our company (me and my sweetie) don't have a policy....I just do everything I can to best meet my clients needs.

I do however have a comment (anybody surprised at this?).

Regardless of the subject matter of any course I deliver, be it 9K, 14K, 18K, Integrated or whatever, I tell the folks that the policy is no more than a theory or wish that everything else done attempts to bring into reality.

Amazing how well you captured my thoughts.
Our Quality policy actually states verbatum our mission, vision and values.
It seems like we have two documents that are essentially the same but one is named according to ISO standards and the other to business standards.

It seems to me that under the new standard the Mission statement and the quality policy not only could be the same document - they should be the same document.

JMHO

Craig