Quality Policy Statement

[Tim Douty]

We have had our preassessment audit for ISO 9001:2000, and one of the minor nonconformities states we did not quantify our goals within our Quality Policy Statement. Our quality policy is:

Mission: World Class Supplier of Cast Iron Pipe & Fittings
Requirements:
Provide Products that Meet or Exceed Specifications
Provide On-time Delivery and Excellent Customer Service
Maintain Continuous Improvement of Product Quality

After asking the Lead Auditor how we should quantify, we were what World Class Supplier meant? Percentage of market share?
I thought our requirements answer the question - Excellent Customer Service and Continual Improvement!
Any thoughts???????? PLEASE!

 

[Craig H.]

Hi!

Are you sure you understood them? Sure, you have to have objectives, but mentioning them in the Quality Policy is not one I have heard. To me, it would be worth it to ask them where, exactly, in the standard does it require (shall) this?

That said, some registrars have weird requirements. We have to actually say "ISO 9000" in our QP!?!! It wasn't worth the fight to challenge it.

Maybe you could post the text of your audit report??

 

[energy]

Tim Douty said:

We have had our preassessment audit for ISO 9001:2000, and one of the minor nonconformities states we did not quantify our goals within our Quality Policy Statement. Our quality policy is:

Mission: World Class Supplier of Cast Iron Pipe & Fittings
Requirements:

What's a mission statement doing in the Quality policy, anyway? I always thought they were different. There is a thread about World Class and it's implications. Do a search "World Class Company". Good Luck

 

[Craig H.]

AH! I misunderstood, obviously. Seems like we had a thread not too long ago about "world class". I don't think it started outabout that, though.
Nice save, guys.

To further what Tim said, I look on the quality system as a pyramid. You have the policy on top, then the manual, then the lower levels. As you go lower, the documents become more "nuts and bolts" oriented.

The documents below should support what is said (objectives) by the documents above. So, a working definition of "world class" is in order.

 

[Tim Douty]

Response to Quality Policy Statement

Thanks for the replies. I agree that we must show measurable objectives, but my confusion is should it be contained in our quality policy statement?
Here is the text of the Audit Report:
Area under review: Quality Objectives
Description of Condition:
The standard at 5.4.1 require quality objectives to be measureable and by inference, measured. Currently, the objectives as stated in section 0 - Quality Policy Statement
"Mission: World Class supplier of Cast Iron Pipe and Fittings, Requirements:
Provide Products that Meet or Exceed specifications
Provide On-time Delivery and Excellent Customer Service Maintain Continuous Improvement of Product Quality" do not all have defined criteria for measuring.

 

[Tim Douty]

Quality Policy - Follow-up

Thanks for the advise. It appears that I may have a valid argument, again I did not think specifics or quantifiable measurements are required within the scope of the Quality Policy Statement. Thanks again!

 

[energy]

Re: Quality Policy - Follow-up

Tim Douty said:

Thanks for the advise. It appears that I may have a valid argument, again I did not think specifics or quantifiable measurements are required within the scope of the Quality Policy Statement. Thanks again!

Tim,

Based on what I read here regarding Quality policy statements being auditable, we shied away from words like "exceed" because my paranoid mind said, "How do we prove that?" in all cases. We say we meet customer/regulatory reqt's. We say we commmunicate the "Customer Focused" QMS to all levels of the organization. We say we continually monitor as aspects of the QMS. (that one makes me nervous with the word all ). But, overall, we feel that we can provide evidence to verify our statements. That's the first thing Mr. Pinhead will attack, if you get a "Pinhead". I'm not so sure that your auditor meets that description. But, he/she might, if that's all they cited you for. Easy fix. hang in there!