J
Jacob Beckman
Hello,
I've been gleaning quite a bit of helpful info from this forum for some time now. I'd like to thank you all for that.
In that process I've seen a lot of talk about making the Quality System work in a way that's best for one's company. I'm in the middle of getting a formal Quality System off the ground at my company and I already see that our Quality Policy does not address some very important aspects of our business. It talks about commitment to customer satisfaction, continual improvement, and so on, but quality is only one part of our business. It seems like it would be so much more useful to have more of a Business Philosophy built on our core values, and set up a Management System around that philosophy, rather than just dealing with quality. Then all processes and documents are reviewed in light of, and internal audits are conducted against, the Business Philosophy.
For instance, if we had a Business Philosophy that says something like "we are committed to customer satisfaction, safety, environmental responsibility, innovation, and personal development" (I'll worry about the exact wording later), would that work? Is anyone doing it that way? What would an auditor think? (I know I'm going to get zapped for that question
but as the day approaches when I will meet an auditor face-to-face, I'm getting more concerned about how he/she will perceive what we're doing here.)
Incorporating these core values into a management system seems to make a lot of sense because, as a small company that has grown tremendously in the last few years, we're a little nervous about losing our unique corporate culture. Our focus on personal development has allowed us to maintain very low turnover rates in most departments so far, because people feel challenged by doing many different kinds of tasks. Rigid structure, job descriptions, and making sure only "qualified" people do the jobs might stifle that personal growth if we don't use our other core values to plan and evaluate the quality system.
But then, do we have to quantify those core values, and if so, how?
I've been gleaning quite a bit of helpful info from this forum for some time now. I'd like to thank you all for that.
In that process I've seen a lot of talk about making the Quality System work in a way that's best for one's company. I'm in the middle of getting a formal Quality System off the ground at my company and I already see that our Quality Policy does not address some very important aspects of our business. It talks about commitment to customer satisfaction, continual improvement, and so on, but quality is only one part of our business. It seems like it would be so much more useful to have more of a Business Philosophy built on our core values, and set up a Management System around that philosophy, rather than just dealing with quality. Then all processes and documents are reviewed in light of, and internal audits are conducted against, the Business Philosophy.
For instance, if we had a Business Philosophy that says something like "we are committed to customer satisfaction, safety, environmental responsibility, innovation, and personal development" (I'll worry about the exact wording later), would that work? Is anyone doing it that way? What would an auditor think? (I know I'm going to get zapped for that question
but as the day approaches when I will meet an auditor face-to-face, I'm getting more concerned about how he/she will perceive what we're doing here.) Incorporating these core values into a management system seems to make a lot of sense because, as a small company that has grown tremendously in the last few years, we're a little nervous about losing our unique corporate culture. Our focus on personal development has allowed us to maintain very low turnover rates in most departments so far, because people feel challenged by doing many different kinds of tasks. Rigid structure, job descriptions, and making sure only "qualified" people do the jobs might stifle that personal growth if we don't use our other core values to plan and evaluate the quality system.
But then, do we have to quantify those core values, and if so, how?
