13.2 The Stewards Take Our Temperature

The key to a successful QMS—one that helps us to achieve our quality goals and objectives—is the ability to measure either our progress against those goals and objectives or the lack thereof! Someone has to be responsible for this task. A useful chart for this purpose is shown in Table 13.1.

Table 13.1: Taking Excellent's Temperature—ISO 9001:2000 Readiness Chart
C/I	Relative Percentage(%)
Elements
Month	Mar.	June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
Goal	Launch Phase	First Draft Process Documents	First Audit Verification and Validation	Final Draft QM	Management Review	Internal Readiness Assessment	Registrar's Document Review	Registrar's Certification	Activities Where Points Will Come From
Plan— executive
Management reviews	30	50	50	60					2 Management reviews (15)
Quality manual	5	70	80	85					Readiness audit
Objectives metrics	30	50	60	70					Quantitative analysis
Demonstration of effectiveness	5	50	55	60					Full corrective and preventive action with customer complaints
Do—operational
Process documents	5	60	65	75					Complete marketing and sales, service
Procedural documents	30	40	50	55					Readiness audit
Format documents	30	50	60	70					Production, test
Implementation	30	40	50	55					Engineering, marketing and sales
Master records lists	5	30	50	70					Production, test, service
Master documents lists	5	30	50	60					Production, marketing and sales
Approved vendor lists	5	30	70	75					Purchasing, engineering
Master calibration lists	5	30	50	50					Internal calibrations
Training program	30	40	50	55					Production, marketing and sales
Check—internal
Customer satisfaction	30	50	60	65					Survey analysis
Quality audits	5	30	50	60					5 points each
Verification process and product	30	50	80	85					Readiness audit
Act–effectiveness
Data analysis	5	35	50	70					Complete intranet
Corrective actions	5	40	50	65					Analyze
Preventive actions	5	40	60	60					Make a list
Customer complaints	30	50	60	65					Analyze
Continual improvement	30	50	60	65					Trending
Note: 90% implies readiness for the initial assessment.
Guide: startup required = 5%; a clear base exists = 30%; mid-game to ISO readiness = 35–70%; endgame, the last few yards = 75–85%; ready for initial assessment = 90%.

In Table 13.1, we use the Shewhart cycle of plan-do-check-act to create a quantitative matrix for this measurement purpose. The paradigm has been given a parallel terminology, (i.e., executive-operational-internal effectiveness to emphasize the role that is to be played by management).

In the example, the Excellent Corporation, which started from a fairly weak base, has progressed month by month to the point where the manual is about one more tight-end football pass away from a touchdown and some exceptional work has been done in the verification of product.

A key duty of the steward is to input the scorecard. The scorecard is kept up to date weekly by the ISO 9000 management representative based on inputs from the stewards. Thus, we have defined the first key duty of a steward.

To further determine the duties of stewardship, we note that in Clause 5.1 of the Standard, it is required that top management clearly indicates its commitment to QMS documentation, implementation, and effectiveness. A continually improved QMS effectiveness is to be demonstrated. The Standard then lists a number of directives that can be used to create a matrix that defines stewardship (see Table 13.2).

Table 13.2: Duties of the Steward
ISO 9001:2000 Clause	ISO 9001:2000 Requirement	Related Specific Duties of the Stewards with Their Action Teams
5.1(b)	Quality policy: establish the quality policy	Formulate the quality policy statement (QPS) Post the signed and controlled QPS Devise methods to propagate the QPS
5.4.2(a)	QMS planning: ensure that QMS planning meets the requirements of 4.1	Program manage the quality manual Program manage process documents Program manage procedures and forms Determine effectiveness guidelines Provide resources to complete QMS Determine, monitor, measure metrics Determine continual-improvement metrics
5.4.2(b)	Revision control: ensure that QMS integrity is maintained when changes are planned and implemented.	Ensure that all documentation is controlled
5.4.2(a)	Quality objectives: ensure that QMS planning meets the quality objectives	Plan in quality objective metrics into the QMS program management plan
5.1(c)	Quality objectives: establish the quality objectives	Formulate quality objectives at all levels that support top management goals
5.5.1	Responsibility and authority: define responsibilities and authorities and communicate them within the organization	Establish the sections of the Standard that each steward is responsible for and set up teams
5.1(e)	Resource management: ensure the availability of resources	Include all required resources into the program management plan
5.5.3	Communication: ensure that appropriate communication processes are established within the organization	Devise a communication process to inform the steward team members and top management on progress
5.1(a)	Communication: communicate to the organization the importance of meeting customer, statutory, and regulatory requirements	Include weekly reports that cover all aspects of the QMS creation, including the coverage of customer, statutory, and regulatory requirements
5.5.3	Communication: ensure that communication takes place regarding the effectiveness of the QMS	Include weekly steward team reviews in the program management plan
5.2	Customer satisfaction: ensure that customer requirements are determined and met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction	Include a metric for customer satisfaction in the program management plan
5.5.2	Management representative: appoint a management representative	Appoint an ISO 9000 management representative
5.1(d)	Management reviews: conduct management reviews	Prepare and present steward team status at each top management review

Thus, the essential role of a steward (process champion) is to ensure that the QMS contains the following:

An effective and visible quality policy statement;
A program management plan to guide the team's activities;
A controlled documentation system;
A set of quality objective metrics and goals at all levels of the organization that includes customer satisfaction metrics;
A clearly defined set of team responsibilities and authority to document, implement, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the QMS via verification and validation analysis;
Clear channels of communication to all groups involved in the creation process;
Documented appointment of an ISO 9000 management representative;
A dynamic presentation role in the top management reviews to clearly define the status of the QMS creation process for the steward's team.

Steward's Information Objectives With regard to communication, each steward ensures the following of their channels of information:

There is a technical correlation from quality policy statement down to the lowest documentation levels (e.g. forms—the channel).
There is an effective link between each quality policy statement and the lower tier documents.
The entire documentation system is complete.
The documented system is completely implemented.
The channel is helping to achieve the quality objectives.
The continual improvement programs are effective.
There is an acceptance at all levels of the QMS directives.
The quality policies are managed at all levels.