Quality of an organization – Guidance to achieve sustained success
ISO 9004 is an available instrument which is supposed to enable top managements of organizations to implement suitable measures for sustainable success. During that, the size or the specialist field of the respective organization won’t matter. However, ISO 9004 may not be regarded as a standalone standard. Above all, it is a manual for the efficient implementation of quality management (not explicitly for the implementation of ISO 9001!) and it is supposed to help to align management strategy with it.
This manual is supposed to serve to develop, to check and to improve the efficacy but also the practical efficiency of the applied quality management. But during that, the standard rests above all on the principles of self-responsibility and self-monitoring and therefore, it is to be regarded as less of a management system and more of a management model.
Aside from general strategy and politics, especially the areas of resources (financial resources, technology, coworkers, suppliers and partners…), process management (more or less based on the EFQM model), quality measurement and assessment as well as optimization and innovation methods are taken into account by this model as well.
This structure also quickly clarifies the difference from a product or performance-oriented QM standard, like ISO 9001. ISO 9004 serves to facilitate, above all the organizational performance within a respective company or government agency. Trust in the organization as such is supposed to be reinforced – not just trust in a specific product or a specific performance.
When can ISO 9004 be helpful for me?
ISO 9004 is very well suitable in the run-up to the basic introduction or realignment of a quality management system. Then, with the aid of the standard, reasonable framework conditions for the specific QMS can be described across organizations and its auditability can already be specified, too. Even though ISO 9004 is very explicitly no specific manual for ISO 9001, it is advantageous in practice taking into account ISO 9004 during the further development of an existing QMS. That holds particularly true for the development of integrated quality management systems.
Even though the standard can be applied irrespectively of the size and type of the organization, its performance and efficiency will increase together with the complexity of the existing structures and processes, of course.
ISO 9004 innovations – what is actually new here?
Apart from today’s catchier and more meaningful designation (“Quality of an organization – Guidance to achieve sustained success”), terminology was above all, adapted and updated (ISO 9000). The annex on the “self-assessment tool” was completely revised and outdated annexes B and C were removed. The editorial changes to the set of standards themselves are especially aimed at making the standard better understandable and at improving the usefulness and the acceptance of ISO 9004 as a standard, though.
The PeRoBa® is happy to help you with ISO 9004
About PeRoBa®:
PeRoBa® Unternehmensberatung GmbH has specialized in management systems since 1991. The company has been headquartered in Baldham since 2011 and also maintains an office on Prinzregentenstraße in Munich. PeRoBa® advises, audits and assesses to support clients in introducing and implementing their management systems, and also offers audits, QM training, seminars and workshops. Since January 2016, the in-house software iVision® Smart Remote Audit Solution has been on the market; it is based on our patented method for visual order-picking support (DE 10 2015 117 554 B4).
Dr. Roland Scherb is the founder and Managing Director of PeRoBa® Unternehmensberatung GmbH, certified to DIN EN ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001 and based in Baldham. He is President of the Bundesverband der Auditoren e. V. (German Federal Association of Auditors), head of the ISO Certification Competence Forum at BVMW e. V. (German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses) and a member of the DIN working committee NQSZ NA 147-00-07 GA on the revision of DIN EN ISO 19011. He is also a book author as well as a trainer and lecturer at renowned educational institutions on management systems and the associated core methods.
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