Write 'em up
Andrews,
Yep, you're right on the money. People not being aware of objectives is one of the most common nonconformities I write. And what could be more important? Hardly anything. I agree on the ISO reference: 6.2.2d. It says, "The organization shall...ensure that its personnel are aware of the relevance and importance of their activities and how they contribute to the achievement of the quality objectives..." That pretty much sums it up. ISO 9001:2000 doesn't discriminate between different levels of the organization (enterprise, managerial, operational, etc), though many organizations structure their objectives in a multilevel manner. The standard simply says that everyone needs to understand the objectives that apply to them. This is one of the "global" questions I ask every person I come in contact with during an audit. Not only is it an explicit ISO 9001:2000 requirement, but it adds a lot of strategic value to the organization when personnel are able to deliver of the requirement.
Keep in mind that objectives can be established in lots of different ways. Large organizations may establish separate objectives for every department, and smaller/less complex organizations may simply establish a single set of objectives that apply to everyone. There are many, many different ways to slice and dice it. And some organizations don't even call them "quality objectives," which of course is fine (and in my opinion preferable). As long as everyone has some reasonable answers for how they contribute to objectives, then I'm happy. Ignorance, confusion, and blank stares are signs that someone has dropped the ball.
Here's a reference for those who are interested. Please note that some of the points in the article are implementation points, not audit points (i.e., they're not requirements of the standard, just good ideas for getting more value from the system):
https://www.qualitydigest.com/nov00/html/objectives.html. (Quality Digest, Nov 2000).
Talk to you later,
Craig
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Craig Cochran
Center for International Standards & Quality
Georgia Institute of Technology
[email protected]