Godfrey,
By getting top management very involved in drafting the Quality Manual, you run the risk of creating/reinforcing an incorrect perception that ISO 9001:2000 is all about documentation and bureaucracy. I think I would engage top management in other ways, focusing especially on issues that appeal to their sense of strategic management. This will illustrate how the management system can be used to make them and the whole organization more successful. Of course this is common sense, but a lot of top managers I talk to really don't have this impression of ISO 9001.
Specifically, I think I'd spend a considerable time engaging top management in these areas:
*** Strategic metrics (i.e., quality objectives): Where these come from, how to develop them, how to communicate and deploy them, how to get everyone involved in their improvement, how to react to trends.
*** Customer perceptions: How perceptions are gauged, how the company analyzes perceptions, how action is taken to improve perceptions, why this is probably the biggest issue the organization faces.
*** Corrective and preventive actions: How the organization becomes aware of problems and potential problems, how issues are investigated, what 'root cause' means and how can it be identified, how the organization ensures actions are taken and effective, and trends are reported.
There are other things I'd bring up (like all the rest of section 5), but these issues really come to mind. When top management begins to associate ISO 9001 with high-level, strategic issues, they start to realize how important your role is. It's a fight to get there, but the effort is worth it. Just some thoughts from the land of Dixie.
Good luck,
Craig
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Craig Cochran
[email protected]
Center for International Standards & Quality
Georgia Institute of Technology