Setting ISO 9001 Quality Objectives

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What Quality Objectives can I set in my ISO 9001 Quality Management System?

The ISO 9001 management Standard requires that objectives are set and managed, but doesn’t specify what the ISO 9001 Quality objectives should be. Take a look at our Jargon buster as to what the Standard says ISO objectives should be: 

ISO 9001 Standard requirement	What that means in Plain English
They are consistent with the quality policy They take into account applicable requirements They are relevant to the conformity of products and services They are relevant to the enhancement of customer satisfaction	The objectives fit with what you want to achieve They help you meet any specific requirements that are put on you They ensure that your products and services conform to (whatever they need to conform to) They help you satisfy your customers

Let’s break it down then – what objectives can you set?

If your business wants to be a world leader in the online sales of electronic equipment, what are you going to need, and what objectives could be applicable?

I need good products to sell - 

My objectives could focus on Manufacturing, Sourcing or Product Quality 

I need a good website and sales platform - 

My objectives could focus on Website Performance, or Sales 

I need good people to run the site, manage products, and support your customers - 

My objectives could focus on Training, HR, Customer Service or Delivery

Now, you can begin to see where your ISO 9001 Quality Objectives are going now – in line with the Standards, these will fit with your ISO 9001 Quality Policy of being the world leader in electronic equipment! However, we still haven’t defined what the actual objectives are! Let’s look at the People based ISO 9001 Quality objectives. What you need to consider is what do you want from your people? If you can define this, you can start to define some objectives, for example: 

We need our people to start being effective within 14 days of starting work with us.... 

Set some objectives around induction – for example:

• All staff must complete Inductions within 5 days
• All staff must complete initial training within 10 days
• All staff must score 75% on their initial training tests
• All Managers must complete an initial review with Staff within 3 months

Once you’ve got your objectives agreed, you can define the data that you need to capture to monitor them. It is very surprising what little amounts of data can start to reveal a lot about your processes.

Spedan Ltd have been working with the global leaders in Cloud Data Management and Analytics, UXLI.com to develop some cutting-edge apps for the management of ISO Quality Objectives. Using only 7 key points of data, we were able to generate some really interesting insights to the performance of a fictitious company. We modelled a sample of staff who started with our ‘test’ company in order to see what information we could generate for managers to act on.

This is where it starts to get very exciting for Quality Managers, Compliance Managers and HSE managers – using a limited amount of data, you can investigate whether induction training is being completed on time, or delve deeper and identify the performance by relevant line manager or department.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This type of information ticks a lot of boxes:

• It meets the requirements of ISO 9001 Clause 5.2 for Quality Objectives
• It satisfies an external auditor that you are monitoring and measuring performance (ISO 9001 Clause 9.1)
• It helps you as a Quality Manager, or Compliance Manager to identify gaps in your performance
• It helps Senior Leadership teams to identify where business improvements can be focussed.

For more information on the work that UXLI and Spedan are doing on Quality Objectives and Quality Objective Apps, please contact us through all the regular channels.

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