Quality Policy - A Critique Request

[Bob_M]

Another QUALITY POLICY critique request

Looking for opions/comments about the following quality policy.
Please note: I'm working on the manual, policy, objectives etc. (mostly by myself - see note below), and I'm just looking for some helpful COVE input.
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XXX is committed to ensuring customer satisfaction in product performance, delivery, and customer support.

Our primary goal at XXX is to manufacture and supply defect free products to our customers, on time every time.

XXX will continue to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations through effective quality planning and continual improvement efforts throughout the organization, which are driven by our quality objectives and regular review and analysis of our quality management system.
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The statement above in bold red is our current/1994 quality policy/statement (which is currently posted throughout the shop). This pretty much is our goal as a company regardless of ISO... Rather simple but to the point.

I/we still need to work on "documenting" our objectives, but I have several ideas, and we have had some brief discussions about them. I think The 1st and 3rd senence above will include our objectives and I HOPE they cover the actually REQURIMENTS for a quality policy.
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Comments? Suggestions? Could we "get-away" with just the red sentence?
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NOTE: I DO REALIZE determining a company policy and its objectives SHOULD NOT be the sole responsiblity of the Quality Manager/Mgmt Rep. but at the moment I'm doing it alone. (There is a commitment here just bad timing and boss/owner has been busier than usual lately. We WILL discuss/approve this soon, but I'm just looking for feedback).

 

[Jimmy Olson]

Hi Bob,

If you are good at debating you could possibly make a case that everything is implied by the red sentence , but personnally, I would go with all three sentences. I would say that it meets the requirements and should satisfy your auditor.

I'm sure the owner might have some suggestions (they always do), but this is definately a good start to give him.

 

[Craig H.]

Looking for opions/comments about the following quality policy.
Please note: I'm working on the manual, policy, objectives etc. (mostly by myself - see note below), and I'm just looking for some helpful COVE input.
---------------------------
XXX is committed to ensuring customer satisfaction in product performance, delivery, and customer support.

Our primary goal at XXX is to manufacture and supply defect free products to our customers, on time every time.

XXX will continue to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations through effective quality planning and continual improvement efforts throughout the organization, which are driven by our quality objectives and regular review and analysis of our quality management system.
-----------------------------------
The statement above in bold red is our current/1994 quality policy/statement (which is currently posted throughout the shop). This pretty much is our goal as a company regardless of ISO... Rather simple but to the point.

I/we still need to work on "documenting" our objectives, but I have several ideas, and we have had some brief discussions about them. I think The 1st and 3rd senence above will include our objectives and I HOPE they cover the actually REQURIMENTS for a quality policy.
-----------------------------------
Comments? Suggestions? Could we "get-away" with just the red sentence?
-----------------------------------
NOTE: I DO REALIZE determining a company policy and its objectives SHOULD NOT be the sole responsiblity of the Quality Manager/Mgmt Rep. but at the moment I'm doing it alone. (There is a commitment here just bad timing and boss/owner has been busier than usual lately. We WILL discuss/approve this soon, but I'm just looking for feedback).

Bob:

Just a suggestion, but have you considered saying just "our objectives" and "our management systems"? Under the new standard the lines between departments has blurred, due in part to the emphasis on processes, instead of just functionality.

When you have reviews, is the conversation held to just "quality" issues? I know ours are not, and because we don't have many meetings with everyone in the same room, it would be difficult to argue in favor of staying strictly on the agenda.

Heck, with our managers it wouldn't matter if I tried anyway!! But, those discussions are important, even if a little "out of bounds".

Just a thought. And my $.02.

Craig

 

[Bob_M]

Just a suggestion, but have you considered saying just "our objectives" and "our management systems"? Under the new standard the lines between departments has blurred, due in part to the emphasis on processes, instead of just functionality.

Good point. Thanks

When you have reviews, is the conversation held to just "quality" issues? I know ours are not, and because we don't have many meetings with everyone in the same room, it would be difficult to argue in favor of staying strictly on the agenda.

Acutally now we take care of our Management Review topics during our monthly staff meeting (boss and all managers). Saves the trouble of a "special" meeting" that repeated the topics we discuss regularly. AND some of our yet-to-be documented objectives are discussed in those meetings already.

 

[Marc]

For some ideas, see:

http://Elsmar.com/pdf_files/Quality_Policies.txt

The long and short of it!

 

[Shaun Daly]

Skewing the topic slightly here...

The Quality Policy has to be controlled. Currently ours is a page in our Quality manual (Controlled document, Issue level, yada yada)

So, if I wanted to place copies of the quality policy around the factory for employees/visitors to read, I would have to create a seperate document which follows doc' control rules?

Which means 2 documents you have to update if the policy changes.

If the quality policies around the factory were not controlled, then they might not get updated, or I might forget there was a copy in the Maintenance room.

Thoughts?

 

[Randy Stewart]

Stick with the "Printed Copies are Uncontrolled" statement. It reduces doc control headaches.

 

[Jimmy Olson]

Stick with the "Printed Copies are Uncontrolled" statement. It reduces doc control headaches.

I agree with this statement. We use it here and it makes things much simpler.

 

[Mike S.]

Stick with the "Printed Copies are Uncontrolled" statement. It reduces doc control headaches.

Do you mean for ALL docs or just for the Q policy? What about companies without an extensive intranet?

I say all printed copies are uncontrolled UNLESS they contain a red "controlled copy" stamp -- this let's me give printed copies to areas with no computer access.

 

[Jimmy Olson]

We apply it to all documents. We have a statement in the quality manual and in the doc control procedure that covers this. All of our procedures have a statement at the bottom that says 'This copy is uncontrolled unless otherwise stamped in red ink.'

Each employee is responsible for checking to make sure they have the most current version when using anything printed.This works pretty good for us, but we have a pretty good intranet and quite a few computers scattered throughout the company. I could see how it would be different with a limited amount of computers though.