THE NEW ISO 9000:2000 quality management standard is based on an eight-point philosophy - contained in this executive summary of the foundation document released to FTW by certification body SGS South Africa.
All the eight quality management principles on which the revised standard is based fall into the following definition:
l A quality management principle is a comprehensive and fundamental rule or belief for leading and operating an organisation. This aimed at continually improving performance over the long-term - by focusing on customers, while addressing the needs of all other stakeholders.
Under this definition fall the eight principles:
l Customer-focused organisation - Organisations depend on their
customers, and therefore should understand current and future
customer needs; meet customer requirements; and strive to exceed customer expectations;
l Leadership - Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organisation. They should
create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organisation's objectives;
l Involvement of people at all
levels;
l Process approach - A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process;
l System approach to management - Identifying, understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective improves the organisation's effectiveness and efficiency;
l Continual improvement
l Factual approach to decision making - Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information;
l Mutually beneficial supplier relationships - An organisation and its suppliers are interdependent.
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