Clause 6.2 The Secret to Creating Quality Objectives

The Secret to Creating Quality Objectives (Explained)

As with most management systems, ISO 9001:2015 has always contained a requirement for setting and maintaining quality objectives but, it now has a clause requirements for you to establish plans that explain how you are going to achieve them.

What is a Quality Objective?

Before we discuss anything further, it’s probably a good idea to define exactly what a quality objective is from the management system perspective. ISO 9001:2015 defines quality as:

3.6.2 “the degree to which an object’s characteristics meets requirements”

It defines an objective as:

3.7.1 “result to be achieved”

An object’s characteristics might be a particular type of widget that must conform to a particular size, shape, weight and, colour etc. Or it might relate to a service that must conform to time parameters such as a delivery or production time frame. Whether a product or service, it must meet its design or contractual requirements. A ‘result to be achieved’ should be self-explanatory and, could be thought of as an ‘expected’ or ‘desired outcome’.

We have already discussed quality objectives in an earlier chapter when we were focusing upon clause 5.2, the quality policy. You might remember that within the minimum requirements for that clause was this statement:

5.2.1(b) Provides a framework for setting quality objectives

What Is A Quality Framework?

This highlights a strong link between the quality policy and the requirements for setting objectives. One can have any number of impressive-sounding promises and commitments within a quality policy but, if they are not backed up with ‘measureable’ objectives then, as they say, talk is cheap. As an auditor, I’ve read a great many quality policies containing statements that have been written in what I refer to as ‘corporate doublespeak’. An example might sound like this:

“We pride ourselves on having a vision and passion for excellence in everything that we do”

My question to top management when reading something like this might be; “Could you explain how you achieve passion and excellence in everything that you do?” Confusion and/or panic usually ensues with everyone in the boardroom turning to look at the quality manager for a pertinent answer. I should add that I’m usually silently chuckling to myself during these moments. As I mentioned during the discussion of quality policy requirements, make sure you write promises and commitments in your policy that can be measured in a meaningful way.

How Many Objectives Do We Need?

Quality objectives can encompass anything that happens both internally and, externally within your organisation. The type and number of objectives that you set will obviously depend on the nature of who you are and what you do (context) but, should relate to anything that contributes to continual improvements. For a set of global objectives that are linked to your quality policy, an amount of 4-8 objectives would be reasonable.

Some typical objectives might include:

• Customer satisfaction
• Delivery times
• Product or service conformity
• Machine up/down times
• Financial targets
• Accident rates
• Reductions in energy
• Recycling targets

You might be looking at these examples and be asking; “ financial targets what have they got to do with quality?” Let’s not forget that the management system’s main function is continual improvement and, if meeting sales targets is providing the organisation with the revenue to operate successfully, then financial targets are worthy objectives. I think this is such an important point it’s worth reiterating; anything within your organisation that contributes to continual improvement is worthy of having an objective attached to monitor and measure it.

Types Of Quality Objectives

Objectives that are set within the quality policy are objectives that sit above the entire organisation and affect everything (and everyone) that it does and, could be described as ‘global’ objectives. Functional type objectives are objectives that might be thought of as ‘local’ objectives that affect particular areas, processes or even individuals such as personal targets.

Global: Reduce energy for the year by 15%
Local: Achieve a parts per minute production run of 10,000 units per month
Personal: Achieve a minimum of 30 working hours per week

Who designs and establishes quality objectives?, I hear you asking. Global quality objectives would normally be a top management function. These are discussed, designed and established at a management review type meeting. Local objectives might be designed and established my middle management, team leaders or supervisors etc.

What Is New In ISO 9001:2015?

What’s new in this clause requirement for ISO 9001:2015 is that you are now required to document exactly how you plan to achieve your quality objectives. This was not a requirement of the ISO 9001:2008 version of the standard. However, when you stop and think about it, this new addition does make a lot of sense. As Benjamin Franklin said; “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. I would like to think that the authors of the standard had this or, a similar quote in mind when they added this additional requirement to this clause.

Let’s now examine the clause requirements beginning with the requirements under clause 6.1.2.

6.2.1: the organisation shall establish quality objectives at relevant functions, levels and processes needed for the QMS.

Who decides on what is relevant or not you might ask? Well, you do of course. I’m certain that all functions, levels and processes within your organisation are relevant. In this context, relevance refers to affecting either local or personal objectives. For example, an objective set to measure a target of parts-per-minute (PPM) might not have relevance to the delivery department.

An objective set to measure the target temperature of a machine process might not carry any relevance to the cleaning department. The term ‘relevance’ is a little subjective here and, what might be relevant to you and your organisation might be ‘irrelevant’ to my organisation. It could also be argued that, each function, process or level is to be considered a link in the overall chain of everything that happens within your organisation which, makes everything and everyone relevant. The key to this is establishing global objectives linked to the quality policy that will be relevant to everyone and, establishing local objectives on a process or personal level.

The quality objectives shall:

1. Be consistent with the quality policy; as already mentioned, your quality policy is the most important document of your management system. As such, the links between your policy and your quality objectives should be consistent. In my experience as an auditor, I’ve found that most organisations fail to understand this concept. Please remember, the promises and commitments that you make within your quality policy should be written in such a way that they can become measureable, targeted objectives.
   
   
2. Be measureable; a quality objective could be described as ‘a target to be achieved’. By establishing an objective you are essentially setting yourself a goal or a target that you are working towards. If you want to know how far along the path to achieving your target objectives then you are going to need something to measure your progress against. This explains the need for your objectives to be measurable. Objectives are commonly tracked for progress against key performance indicators (KPI’s).
   
   
3. Account for applicable requirements; what’s applicable or not will depend upon the context of your organisation. Applicable requirements are related to the risks and opportunities that you identified during your PESTLE analysis at clauses 4.1 and 4.2. These requirements might be legal, contractual, product or serviced based requirements such as end-user safety, product conformity or service delivery guarantees.
   
   
4. Be relevant to products, services and customer satisfaction; let’s face it, if your quality objectives don’t relate to any of these in some way then, there must be something wrong in their design. You must be able to explain the links between your quality objectives and these categories and, how they contribute to continual improvement.
   
   
5. Be monitored; this is an example of role, responsibility and authority is important. By who, how and when are your quality objectives going to be checked for progress against their expected targets? Be sure to establish individual responsibilities for this otherwise there may be discontent during your next management review meeting. Also, be sure to build the monitoring of objectives into your internal audit planning schedule. When doing this don’t forget the concept of risk, plan to audit your ‘high-risk’ quality objectives first and then work backwards from there. What you define as high-risk will be dependent upon your organisational context. For example, if you are a petrochemical storage facility then, your high risk will be in the area of fire and explosion monitoring. If you are in the business of food order delivery, your high-risk area will be in the monitoring of bacterial infection control.
   
   
6. Be communicated; you can’t expect those affected by quality objectives to be working towards their achievement if, they know nothing about or, don’t fully understand them. A quality objective is a tool for communicating something of importance to someone that it might affect. The key to quality objectives success is that they are communicated and trained out to the relevant parties involved. Communication, education and training is key to the overall success of any management system and, as an auditor/trainer, this is the main area where I find failings causing non-conformances. As with the quality policy, there are many ways to communicate quality objectives such as notice boards and newsletters etc. The first point of communication should always be through word-of-mouth training. You can learn about ISO training in one of our training courses.
   
   
7. Be reviewed and updated; as the information from a regular PESTLE analysis will reveal, risks and opportunities can change frequently. As a result, your quality objectives and targets could be affected and, thus the need for them to be reviewed and, possibly revised. How often you need to do this will again depend upon your organisational context and the many internal and external factors that affect it. While a review and update once per annum might be appropriate for certain organisations a monthly review might be required for others.
   
   

Maintained as documented information; simply record them into a controlled document that describes the objective and target, who is responsible, how and when they will be monitored etc.

How Do I Plan Quality Objectives?

6.2.2 This clause lists the requirement details for how to plan for your quality objectives. The organisation shall determine:

1. What will be done; how are you going to ensure that the response to a customer enquiry is answered within the target time frame as set in the objective? How are you going to change or update the process to ensure that response times are met? Is there a process to manage the failure to meet the specified time frame? I’m sure you’re beginning to understand this part of the requirement, it’s the HOW.
   
   
2. Resources required; this will be dependent on the nature of the objective but might include time, human resources, facilities, IT systems and telecommunication systems etc. Deciding on what resources will be required to achieve an objective ‘before’ you implement the objective is a good idea, don’t you think?
   
   
3. Roles and responsibilities; accountability is the issue here, please don’t leave it to guesswork. Ensure that responsibility for the implementation and maintenance of your quality objectives is established to avoid any problems. It’s very easy for an auditor to ask the question “who is responsible for the planning phase?,” Don’t be embarrassed at not being able to provide the answer.
   
   
4. When will it be completed; all plans require some form of associated time frame and project coordination activities. With no time frame, the project remains open-ended and, incomplete. Be sure to include completion times in your planning document.
   
   
5. How will you evaluate the results; depending upon the nature of the associated risk, this might be a top management function and discussed at a management review meeting. For lower-risk situations, this requirement might be met by middle management of team supervisors etc. This requirement is also related to clause 9.1.1 for monitoring and evaluation.
   
   

What About Documented Information?

Considering this is a new and very important requirement to this version of the standard, I find it quite odd that there is no requirement for you to maintain your planning as documented information. Without documenting the points listed above from A through E, how else would you communicate your planning of quality objectives? As I’ve mentioned earlier, a good approach to maintaining management systems is; If you’re doing it then, document it.

ISO 14001:2015

Due to the high-level structure, the requirements for ISO 14001:2015 are almost identical. The opening blurb at clause 6.2.1 makes reference to environmental aspects, associated compliance obligations, and the consideration of risks & opportunities when establishing objectives as you might expect. The actual requirements read as follows:

1. Consistent with the environmental policy
2. Measurable (if practicable)
3. Monitored
4. Communicated
5. Updated as appropriate
   
   

Manage these requirements in the same way that I’ve described for ISO 9001:2015 above and you will not have any problems. The requirements for clause 6.2.2 Planning actions to achieve environmental objectives are identical to those for ISO 9001:2015 as follows:

1. What will be done
2. What resources will be required
3. Who will be responsible
4. When it will be completed
5. How the results will be evaluated
   
   

Again, simply manage these requirements as I’ve described for ISO 14001:2015 and you will be good to go.

ISO 45001:2018

The opening blurb for clause 6.2.1 is interesting as it reads slightly different from both ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 by making reference to relevance, the meaning and definition of which I discussed earlier, and it also mentions continual improvement. Other than this, the requirements for clause 6.2.1 are identical for ISO 9001:2015 except for part (c) of the requirements, which read as follows:

1. Take into account:
   

1) Applicable requirements;

2) The results of the assessment of risks and opportunities (see 6.1.2.2 and 6.1.2.3);

3) The results of consultation with workers (see 5.4) and, where they exist, workers’ representatives;

Applicable requirements; this is referring to the health and safety law and regulatory, contractual, interested parties and management system requirements. An obvious objective might be a target to reduce the number of accidents (global) or local per department.

The results of the assessment of risks and opportunities; this is referring to the health and safety hazards and opportunities for improvements that were the output from the work you performed at clauses 6.1.2.2 & 6.1.2.3. A target objective here might be a specific number of staff trained to identify and report hazards in the workplace.

The results of consultation with workers; consultation of workers is not only a management system requirement but also a requirement of health and safety law, and so you can’t afford to be weak in this requirement. An obvious objective here is to have a target number of safety meetings with a worker representative for example: one meeting per month for a total of 12 per annum. Be sure to minute these meetings and feed the output through to management review and the continual improvement process.

For Auditors:

ISO 9001:2015:

Some further questions that I will be answering in future articles include:

• What are quality objectives examples?
• How do you write a good quality objective?
• What is a quality objective for ISO?
• What is the difference between KPI and quality objectives?
• What is the objective of quality control?
• Why do quality objectives need to be smart?
• What are the 3 main objectives of the quality program?

ISO 45001:2018
As above

Please be kind and create a link back to this article from your website, thank you.

ISO 14001:2015
As above

References: www.iso.org

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