Quality Objectives - Acceptable Levels and Functions

[misu183]

The way I understood quality objectives:
Top management ensures that objectives are established either for whole organization and for departments.
Objectives for whole organization require resources to be ensured by top management:
- ISO 9001 deadline certification
- increase the output by extending production capacity: buying machine tools, make new facilities, hiring more personal etc.
Objectives for departments are specific performance indicators because they must be measurable.
Examples:
Ip Engineering = number of new approved projects / total number of new submitted projects per year >= 95%
Ip Maintenance - breakdown time in machine tools / total running time in machine tools per year <= 5%
Ip CAD = number of dxf files with erros / total number of dxf-s per year <=5%
or
Quality performance PPM etc.
The objectives must be realistic and their evolution is followed up on management reviews which are established on regular time intervals in the Management review procedure or directly in the Q manual according to section 5.6 of ISO9001.

 

[Big Jim]

without cascading ones to departments levels (if so) and low level functions?

Take a look at 6.2.2 e where employee competency is discussed. Perhaps a little stealthy because it isn't in 5.4, but critical none the less.

"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 . . .

This would be very difficult to do if the objectives and their results were not shared with all the employees.

That doesn't mean that there could not be some indicators that are tracked by management only though.

As to how to apply the objectives at relevant functions and levels, look at 8.2.3.

"The organization shall apply suitable methods and, where applicable, measurement of the quality management system processes."

Look at you description of the interaction between your processes and determine you core business processes. Each one should have at least one objective or set of objectives. Keep in mind that any one objective can be used again with another process.

As to topic to choose your objectives from, look to 8.4.

"The organization shall determine, collect and analyze appropriate data to demonstrate the suitability and effectiveness of the quality management system . . . The analysis of data shall provide information relating to . . . customer satisfaction . . . conformity to product requirements . . . characteristics and trends of processes and products . . . suppliers.

To summarize 8.4:

1. Customer Satisfaction
2. Product Quality
3. Process performance. In a way this is a repeat of 8.2.3. A common overall measure of this is tracking On-Time-Delivery
4. Supplier Performance.

If you create four quality objectives based on 8.4 you should have no trouble handling the rest of it, including keeping employees informed to be able to answer 6.2.2 e.

Why would top management not want to have all employees help in meeting their objectives?

 

[MVladimir]

misu183б you are correct with regards to prevalent practice.
But I know several large ISO9001 certified companies with complex multi-level organization structure where quality objectives are defined ONLY for top level (for whole organization) and are not cascaded to middle and low relevant levels and functions!! And I am not sure that this is right! From my point of view, taking into consideration the meaning of word WITHIN, organization CAN (or CAN NOT) establish the quality objectives for top level (not mandatory to have top level objectives). But INSIDE (i.e. WITHIN) the organization quality objectives MUST be established on RELEVANT levels and functions, depending of business, product, processes, organization structure and so on.
Any opinions, please!

 

[somashekar]

misu183б you are correct with regards to prevalent practice.
But I know several large ISO9001 certified companies with complex multi-level organization structure where quality objectives are defined ONLY for top level (for whole organization) and are not cascaded to middle and low relevant levels and functions!! And I am not sure that this is right! From my point of view, taking into consideration the meaning of word WITHIN, organization CAN (or CAN NOT) establish the quality objectives for top level (not mandatory to have top level objectives). But INSIDE (i.e. WITHIN) the organization quality objectives MUST be established on RELEVANT levels and functions, depending of business, product, processes, organization structure and so on.
Any opinions, please!

You are on track here. Top level objectives, vision, mission statements, corporate goals, and so on can be established.
The need is to have quality objectives as you described which align to meet the established quality policy.

 

[MVladimir]

Big Jim, my opinion is identical with your absolutely, no problems. It is the best practice to have QMS with quality objectives, KPIs and other indicators established on different levels. But I like to understand: is it ACCEPTABLE for large organization having complex structure to have ONLY top-level objectives??

 

[Big Jim]

Big Jim, my opinion is identical with your absolutely, no problems. It is the best practice to have QMS with quality objectives, KPIs and other indicators established on different levels. But I like to understand: is it ACCEPTABLE for large organization having complex structure to have ONLY top-level objectives??

It would be acceptable to retain some of the objectives for themselves. I don't see how you could meet 6.2.2 e if some basic objectives were not shared, so in my opinion, it would not be acceptable to retain all of them for themselves.

 

[MVladimir]

I understand. May be Elsmar Cove registered QMS third party auditors can tell any opinions?

 

[JaneB]

I believe Jim Is a third party auditor.

 

[Big Jim]

I believe Jim Is a third party auditor.

That is correct, but since I was providing an opinion, I welcome other 3rd party auditors to respond.

 

[MVladimir]

Interesting and practical question: can 3rd party auditor issue NCR for multi-level organization in case of documented top level objectives are exist but neither of low levels and functions do not have specific documented objectives?