This section introduces the concept of leadership as it relates to the quality management system (QMS) and beyond. ISO 9001:2008 is the most recent version which began to deal with this concept in quite some detail.
Previous to the 2008 version, there were just four elements for which high management was responsible. However, the 2015 version requires leadership to commit to 11 different items.
What does that imply?
Leadership & Commitment
Well, it should be obvious that the subject of leadership and commitment is becoming increasingly important whenever ISO 9001 is updated. The most recent list of ISO 9001:2015 requirements for leadership and commitment are admirable in that they are genuine and the standard puts leadership at the forefront of the QMS. By doing this the management system is strongly encouraging you to run your business from the ‘top-down’. This means that top management are expected to be the driving force behind the management system and how it applies to the business.
Let’s take a look at the individual requirements as listed from clause 5.1.1a through 5.1.1j
5.1.1a: Taking accountability for the effectiveness of the QMS;
This states quite clearly how the top management is ultimately responsible for the QMS to achieve its intended outcomes. If things begin to fail and the customer is affected, a 3rd party auditor will lay the responsibility at the hands of top management. Problems should be identified and corrections made during the internal audit process. The results of internal audits should be discussed and resolved during the management review meeting. Who’s the head of the table at management review? Top management of course.
A number of the following statements are driven by the word ‘Ensuring’. This means that top management must make this happen. They can delegate these tasks but they must review progress and be willing to demonstrate involvement and problem-solving activities that deal with issues as they arrive.
5.1.1b: Ensuring that the quality policy and quality objectives are established for the QMS and are compatible with the context and strategic direction of the organisation;
Your quality policy is the top-level document of your QMS and so considering this, is it not important that the top management are involved in its creation? As discussed under the section ‘5.2 Quality policy’, your quality policy is the overall driving force behind everything you do in terms of product or service delivery to the customer. Your quality policy should be written as a framework for setting your global quality objectives. For more information on this see the section ‘5.2 Quality policy’.
The Context of The Organisation
Clause 4.1 requires you to understand and describe the context of your organisation. This is where you take a hard look at yourself in terms of who you are, what you do, where you operate (markets), who are your competitors and what are your risks and opportunities etc. Your quality policy should be congruent with all of these high-level documents and should be established and written based upon the results of the work you performed to meet the requirements of clause 4.1
5.1.1c: Ensuring the integration of the QMS requirements into the organisation’s business processes;
Are you implementing ISO 9001 in order to just obtain certification so that you can bid for more contracts. If so, your management system will ultimately fail as you will be running it inside of a vacuum that is not related to any of your critical business activities. Also, any 3rd party auditor (UKAS approved) will expose this and you will ultimately fail quickly during certification audits.
The ISO 9001 QMS along with all other management systems are based upon continual improvement. The QMS requires you plan to control for risks and opportunities, expose any failure to do this during audits and review and correct those failures with a management review. If you follow this circular, cyclic approach on a regular basis then the QMS should be integrated across all areas of the business including design, communication, purchasing and dispatch etc.
5.1.1d: Promoting the use of the process approach and risk-based thinking;
The requirements for risk are formally described at clause 6.1 but let’s not forget, ISO 9001:2015 is now a risk-based standard. Take a look at clause 0.3.3 on page Viii where you will find a formal declaration and description of this. The standard makes quite clear at clause 4.4 that you are expected to manage your processes as a whole, from start to finish.
One important aspect of this is to ask yourself “what could go wrong?” This question might require an answer (planning) at various points of a process. In system critical environments such as aboard an oil rig, you can understand how it is of paramount importance that this question is behind every part of every single process and activity. How important is it to your business that you ask this same question “what could go wrong?”. The process approach is often misunderstood amongst top management. To combat this it’s a good idea to educate them with an ISO 9001:2015 training course if possible.
5.1.1e: Ensuring that the resources needed for the QMS are available;
This should be pretty obvious, shouldn’t it? It’s going to be very difficult for your management system to survive if it isn’t resourced sufficiently. Top management must ensure that this is planned and during the annual budget review would be the right place to for to happen. Are one or more of your processes failing due to a lack of the correct equipment?
Are you operating culture of mend and make do? Are staff underperforming and making errors due to a lack of training? Can you trace back the reason for this to being a lack of resources or funding? Management systems that are led by fully committed leadership who provide the necessary funding are on a very good footing for success.
5.1.1f: Communicating the importance of effective quality management and of conforming to the QMS requirements;
What could be more important than to tell everybody how important the QMS is and why it’s critical for the business to conform to its requirements. This is a communication requirement that should be directly fulfilled by top management. Top management should be saying, “ISO 9001 is critical to the survival of our business and you should fully commit to the requirements of the standard.” With such an important message to communicate, it would not be a good idea to delegate this important activity to a junior management role.
The Importance Of Communication
This message could (and should) be delivered in a variety of ways, with in-person probably being the most effective. See the section titled ‘Communicating the Quality Policy for more thoughts on this. Actions speak louder than words, actually demonstrating involvement in the QMS by top management goes even a long way. Top management’s involvement in the following processes will communicate more than any amount of corporate small-talk:
- Leading management review and sharing the results with the rest of the organization
- Participating in internal audits, either as an auditor or an auditee
- Motivating and participating in corrective action
- Considering customer feedback reports
- Examining incidents and near-miss reports
- Assisting in the identification of risks and opportunities
- Evaluating progress against quality objectives and helping to develop plans for their achievement
- Examining process efficiency
- Change planning
5.1.1g: Ensuring that the QMS achieves its intended results;
What are the intended results I hear you ask? Well, those are the global quality objectives that are born out of the policy framework statements. Let’s remind ourselves once again that ISO 9001 is a customer-focused management system. The customer is at the heart and priority of everything that you do. It’s quite easy to lose sight of this during all of those daily meetings that you attend.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction should be your ultimate intended result in a product or service delivery environment. In a safety-critical environment, such as a nuclear power plant, then SAFETY will be your foremost intended result. Management review meetings where the progress of obtaining objectives are a good way to determine if the QMS is achieving its intended results.
5.1.1(h): Engaging, directing and supporting persons to contribute to the effectiveness of the QMS;
Take another look at the bulleted list above, these are all top management activities that will all serve to engage with staff and lead by example. Top management need to be visible at taking an active role in promoting and implementing the requirements of the QMS. If they have been successfully implementing and meeting the requirements of clause 5.1 up to this point, then there is nothing to worry about.
By implementing many of the clause requirements of 5.1, top management will, by default, be achieving many of the other clause requirements. It’s because of this that many 3rd party auditors will not look for evidence on each and every clause requirement from 5.1a through to 5.1j. They are more likely to take a holistic approach to clause 5.1 and try to establish the ‘big picture’ when it comes to investigating the leadership and commitment activity within an organisation.
5.1.1(i): Promoting improvement;
This is a new requirement of the standard and is long overdue. When one considers that all modern management systems are based upon the concept of continual improvement, it seems like a no-brainer that this would be a requirement for top management. Requirements and opportunities for continual improvement are found within many parts of the standard but could say that the main mechanism for this lies in the functions of the internal audit, management review and corrective actions process.
Having top management involved in these processes at a minimum is a good way for them to demonstrate the concept of continual improvement to all concerned including 3rd party auditors.
5.1.1(j): Supporting other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their areas of responsibility.
A skill for top management is knowing when and who to delegate tasks and responsibilities to, including the responsibilities associated with ISO 9001. One must be aware of not overloading too much responsibility onto a single staff member. Doing this will only lead to high levels of stress for an individual. ISO 9001 is written to affect all staff in an organisation and so all should play a role in its delivery and maintenance. The best approach is to break down the requirements into small parts and distribute the responsibility for achieving them amongst many individuals.
You are not required by ISO 9001:2015 to keep documented information (i.e., keep records) of management commitment however, it would be a good idea to do so. If there is another means to indicate that they kept their involvement, that would qualify as proof. In the absence of documents, record how commitments were kept and how top management displayed leadership. And, of course, audit top management’s leadership and dedication to the management system. Their own words during the audit interview will disclose a great deal about their commitment to the management system.
References: www.iso.org
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