Chapter 15: Quality Objectives

One of the most powerful methods used to measure QMS effectiveness is to carefully track the organization's progress toward the achievement of its quality objectives. The quality objectives must be written in language that is meaningful to the users and defined by a metric that is uniquely measurable. This does not imply that the metric is easy to measure. For example, if first pass yield is the measurement based on a metric determined by the number of electronic cards that pass final test divided by the total number of cards measured, it is important to make sure that cards that fail the first time, and are subsequently repaired and passed through again, are not included in the first pass data. The application of the appropriate statistics is not a trivial exercise. Use great care in its choice and don't be afraid to change as often as necessary until you have found a truly meaningful metric.

15.1 Quality Objectives Issue

Our experience with 110 ISO 9000–certified companies indicates that the development of quality objectives is one of the most difficult areas of ISO 9000 responsiveness. We see early signs of this issue in our recent ISO 9001:2000 certification activities, where the need for quantitative quality objective expression is mandatory ^[1].

The primary reason for the observed difficulty appears to be confusion over what constitutes a quality objective and how it should be stated. This observation should not be a surprise because the scope of quality objectives varies widely between small, mid-sized, and large sites. For example, in a small site (less than 50 employees), top management is involved in the day-to-day operations and the president and vice presidents constantly track and analyze performance. By contrast, in a large site (greater than 500 employees) top management requires a number of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports by managers as a way to track and analyze performance.

In addition, Par. 3.2.5 of ISO 9000:2000 offers a definition of a quality objective in the sense that it is something related to quality that one seeks. Several notes indicate that the quality policy provides the framework for the quality objectives that are intended to flow down through the organization. The definition is so qualitative that it offers a modicum of guidance when we attempt to apply the concept to QMS quality objective design.

It is our purpose, therefore, to present a systematic approach to the design of quality objectives that is flexible enough for use by certified sites of any size. The discussion includes examples of this process related to a small, a mid-sized, and a large certified site. A detailed flowed-down set of quality objectives is presented for a mid-sized site. The use of a Deming cycle is also proposed to ensure the effective implementation of the established quality objectives.

Our approach to quality objectives is global in that we require business objectives and quality objectives to be transparent.

^[1]The general issues inherent in setting up a QMS compliant with the Standard have been addressed in such articles as Ketola, Jeanne, and Kathy Roberts, "Transition Planning for ISO 9001:2000," Quality Digest, March 2001, p. 24, and McLymount, Rosalind, and Amy Zuckerman, "Slipping into ISO 9000:2000," Quality Digest, August 2001, p. 30, at http://www.qualitydigest.com.