Quality policy is the very first document in the QMS documentation structure. All other company documents are align and used to fulfill the quality policy.
Therefore it is important for every quality engineer to know this document and how organization is using it.
You will also get to know management thinking behind designing this document.
Let’s start the documentation journey from first document,
What is Quality Policy?
This document is the commitment of an organization towards meet all quality needs and requirements. The policy provide the purpose and direction to the organization.
This is the top level commitment, goals and objectives, and every organization member are work to achieved those goals. Each task and activity of an organization is linked and important to achieve the quality policy goals and objective.
In short the it is a general organization commitment to the quality, which includes the objectives and commitment to meet customer, standard and regulatory requirements. Also includes the pledge to work on continuous improvement process.
Why every company need Quality Policy? | Importance of Policy
Every organization is work under the leaders. They are nothing but your management team.
How company should work is decide by the management. But the management also need to follow certain guidelines.
Here it plays the important role to provide the strategic guidelines and objective in terms of management and organization commitment.
It provides the framework for continuous improvement, regulatory compliance, risk management, and effective resource utilization, contributing to the overall success and sustainability of the organization.
How to create a good Quality Policy?
Creation of such document involves organization’s values, objectives, goals and commitment to deliver the quality product and service.
The first step is,
1. Understand the organization, stakeholders, applicable standards and regulations
This step includes to understand the organizations goals, vision, missions along with who are the stakeholders involve in policy document. Also some standards and regulations, review them and ensures that your quality policy should meet those.
2. Form a cross functional team
The cross functional team includes the leadership team, experts who has a perspective of development process.
3. Define quality objective
You should clearly define your objective that aligns to organizational goals and customer expectations.
4. Draft policy statement
Write a statement includes organization’s commitment to quality, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement. Use simple and straight language that is easily understandable by all.
5. Write body content
The content in this document include as follows:
- Statement of commitment to quality.
- Customer business needs and expectations.
- Compliance with applicable standards and regulations.
- Pledge to continuous improvement.
- Maintaining quality.
- Commitment to communication and transparency.
6. Final Draft creation
Create a draft policy documents and have a multiple reviews through the leadership and management team.
7. Review and approval process
After gone through the multiple reviews and modifications finalize the policy based on approval from management and authorized body within an organization.
8. Communicate the Policy
Make the proper documentation by providing the document number revision status and date of release. Then communicate the quality policy in entire organization, so that everyone from top management to the bottom level employee can aware about the organization commitment.
Make sure the policy is easily accessible to all employee.
Example of quality policy:
Conclusion
