Quality Management Systems: A Closer Look At ISO 9001 Continued

To continue last week’s Blog, we take a closer look at the remaining four quality management principles: process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making and relationship management.

Quality Management Principles Continued

ISO 9001 is based on seven quality management principles (QMPs), a set of fundamental beliefs, norms, rules and values that are accepted as true and can be used as a basis for quality management.

These are:

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Engagement Of People
4. Process Approach
5. Improvement
6. Evidence-Based Decision Making
7. Relationship Management

In this last blog of the series we continue to take a closer look at the four remaining principles, starting with Process Approach.

4. Process Approach

Our quality management system consists of inter-related processes which allows us to understand activities and manage them to achieve effective results and optimise the performance.

The key benefits of having a process approach are:

• Enhanced ability to focus efforts on key processes and highlight opportunities for improvements
• Consistent and predictable outcomes
• Effective process management to optimise performance
• Efficient use of resources and reduced cross-functional barriers

For us it is important to manage processes and their inter-relations as a system to achieve the company’s quality objectives effectively and efficiently. The right team members ensure that the necessary information is available to operate and improve the processes and to monitor, analyse and evaluate the performance of the overall system. We constantly analyse modifications to individual processes on the system and manage risks that can affect outputs of the processes and overall outcomes of the quality management system.

5. Improvement

With the goal of continuing to be a successful organisation, we have an ongoing focus on improvements. This is essential for us to maintain current levels of performance, react to changes and create new opportunities.

The key benefits of having a focus on improvement are:

• Improved process performance, organisational capabilities and customer satisfaction
• Enhanced focus on root-cause of any problems, followed by prevention and corrective plans
• Enhanced ability to anticipate and react to risks and opportunities
• Enhanced drive for learning, improvement and innovation

We promote improvement objectives across all levels of the organisation, educating and training all employees on how to apply basic tools to achieve the objectives. We integrate improvement considerations into the development of our product range, always offering state-of-the-art refrigerated vehicles to our customers. We keep track of any modifications or new product launches to make sure we have answered the demands of the market and exceeded customer expectations.

6. Evidence-Based Decision Making

Here at CoolKit we believe that decisions based on the analysis and evaluation of data and information are more likely to produce desired results. It is important to understand cause-and-effect relationships and utilise facts, evidence and data analysis to lead to greater objectivity and confidence in our decision making.

The key benefits of evidence-based decision making are:

• Improved decision-making processes
• Improved assessment of process performance and ability to achieve objectives
• Improved operational effectiveness
• Increased ability to review, challenge and change opinions and decisions
• Increased ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions

To carry this out, we determine, measure and monitor key indicators to demonstrate to business performance, making all data needed available to the relevant team members. Decisions and actions taken are made based on evidence, balanced with experience and intuition, possible thanks to employees with many years of dedication to the refrigerated transport industry.

7. Relationship Management

We have experienced sustained success so far thanks to effectively managed relationships with our suppliers. Interested parties have great influence over the performance of an organisation, and relationship management optimises their impact on the business.

The key benefits of having effective relationship management are:

• Enhanced performance of the business and its interested parties through responding to the opportunities and constraints related to each supplier
• Common understanding of goals and values
• Increased capability to create value for suppliers by sharing resources and competence
• A well-managed supply chain that provides a stable flow of goods and services

We constantly measure our supplier’s performance and provide constructive feedback as appropriate to enhance improvement initiates. We establish collaborative development and improvement activities, encourage and recognise achievements and maintain an open and honest relationship with all our suppliers.

That covers our seven principles for our quality management system. Tune in next week when we look into the ISO14001, which covers the environmental management system in place here at CoolKit. Should you require any assistance with your refrigerated transport requirements do not hesitate to contact our sales team on 0845 459 5418 or complete and enquiry form.

You can always follow us on Twitter @CoolKitLtd and LinkedIn company/coolkit-limited/ to keep up to date with our news, stories and blogs.