Quality Management in the Company Organization Structure

[Dubh12000]

Dear all, I am trying to put together some watertight reasoning behind my assertion that Quality should be a stand alone function in a certain company's organogram, and should not fall in under the Production Manager / Engineering Manager etc scope. This is the way I have always seen it done, and insisted on by various auditors etc. To me it makes perfect sense not to have Quality conflicting with any other production related pressures within an organisation, but I would be very grateful if someone could point out specific clauses in any standards that I can use to back up my assertions.

I apologise in advance......I'm generally an R&D guy, so I am not exactly familiar with Quality Management

 

[Chennaiite]

Re: Quality Management in the Company Structure

Dear all, I am trying to put together some watertight reasoning behind my assertion that Quality should be a stand alone function in a certain company's organogram, and should not fall in under the Production Manager / Engineering Manager etc scope. This is the way I have always seen it done, and insisted on by various auditors etc. To me it makes perfect sense not to have Quality conflicting with any other production related pressures within an organisation, but I would be very grateful if someone could point out specific clauses in any standards that I can use to back up my assertions.

I apologise in advance......I'm generally an R&D guy, so I am not exactly familiar with Quality Management

As long as the Organization complies with 5.1 Management Commitment, I dont see any reason why Quality function cannot be a part of different function such as Production/Engineering.

 

[somashekar]

Re: Quality Management in the Company Structure

First, is that the QMS standard goes by the processes and not by functional departments and hence no clause will direct you with any backup that you wish to have ...
Second, can you help us by listing out all your watertight reasoning why quality should be a stand alone function in a certain company's organogram, and should not fall in under the Production Manager / Engineering Manager etc scope.
Third, you say " insisted on by various auditors etc."
I am surprised if so insisted by a qualified leads auditor of ISO 9001 ...???
I do agree it makes sense to have quality as a standalone function, but not a necessity. What are the reasons against this as felt by the management ... ? Do care to list this as well to our understanding.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Dear all, I am trying to put together some watertight reasoning behind my assertion that Quality should be a stand alone function in a certain company's organogram, and should not fall in under the Production Manager / Engineering Manager etc scope. This is the way I have always seen it done, and insisted on by various auditors etc. To me it makes perfect sense not to have Quality conflicting with any other production related pressures within an organisation, but I would be very grateful if someone could point out specific clauses in any standards that I can use to back up my assertions.

Many have written about the future of the quality profession and the quality function. In my opinion, for the ENLIGHTENED organization, there should not be any separate quality department in the structure of the company.

Why, one may ask.

For the same reason most organizations don't have a Business Ethics Assurance Department, I would say. You see, quality, just as business ethics is supposed to be part of every transaction, embraced by all in the organization. As long as a misinformed organization believes that a "stand-alone" department can assure and promote quality, they won't have understood what quality is all about.

A Quality manager, director, VP, etc... with direct line to the organization's chief officer is no guarantee of anything. Rather than focusing on the organization chart, one should focus on the organization culture towards quality.

 

[somashekar]

Just an other thought ... Can you get the engineering to be within the Quality manager responsibility ? How do you think your company will react to this ..

 

[Dubh12000]

I have to be honest here, I've seen this stated at two separate companies - but never from an auditor associated with a regulatory body (ISO / FAA / NADCAP etc), it was always a concern from the customer audits.

In a sense, I guess I have to agree with Sidney's view on this

 

[Coury Ferguson]

I have to be honest here, I've seen this stated at two separate companies - but never from an auditor associated with a regulatory body (ISO / FAA / NADCAP etc), it was always a concern from the customer audits.

In a sense, I guess I have to agree with Sidney's view on this

Sidney's view is "new" school. "Old" school taught, that they must separate entities, and the person in charge of Quality, had to report outside of manufacturing's control.