Quality Management Principles are a set of fundamental beliefs, norms, rules and values that are accepted as a basis or foundation to guide an organization’s performance.

The new ISO 9001:2015 standard is based on seven Quality Management Principles. ISO 9001 Consultants should guide their clients about the importance and benefits of these principles and how to incorporate them into their businesses.

Customer focus

While implementing ISO 9001, the main focus of the organization should be to meet customer requirements and exceed customer satisfaction.

When an organization manages to attract and retain the confidence of its customers then it attains sustained success.  Every instance of interaction with the customer provides an opportunity for the organization to deliver more value.  When an organization evaluates current and future needs of its customer and interested parties then sustained success is ensured.

Benefits of Customer focus are and increase in customer value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, repeat business, better reputation, expansion is customer base and increase in revenue and market share.

You can focus on the needs of the Customer by linking your objectives to the customer needs and expectations, provide goods and services that meet customer needs and expectations, measure customer satisfaction, recognize direct and indirect customers.

Leadership

Unity of purpose is established at all levels by the leaders and they create conditions in which all employees work towards achieving organizational objectives.

The creation of unity of direction and purpose enables an organization to focus all its strategies and policies on the attainment of its objectives.

These result in increased effectiveness and efficiency in attainment of quality objectives and policies. This also results in better coordination of the organization’s business processes and in development of the capability of the organization to deliver desired outcomes.

You can take the steps of communicating the organizations’ mission, strategy, and processes throughout the organization, create shared values and ethical models for behavior and create a culture of integrity and trust.

Engagement of people

Engaged, competent and empowered people throughout the organization are mandatory to its capability to deliver value.

To manage an organization efficiently and effectively, it is necessary to involve all the people at all the levels and to give respect as individuals.

Benefits are increased motivation to achieve the quality objectives and increased involvement of the people in improvement activities.

Steps you can take to increase engagement are to communicate to the employees that you understand their importance to the organization and facilitate open discussion and the sharing of knowledge as well  as experience. Empower people to undertake initiatives without fear.

Process approach

Predictable and consistent results are achieved more efficiently and effectively when activities are management and understood as a group of interrelated activities which function as an integrated and coherent system.

Understanding how the results are produced by a quality management system through its interrelated processes enables the organization to optimize its performance and system.

The benefits of process approach are a focus on key processes and predictable and consistent outcomes through aligned processes and optimized performance.

Actions you can take to adopt the process approach are defining objectives and processes necessary to achieve them. Also establishing authority and responsibility as well as accountability for each process. You can also determine process interdependence and analyze the effects of change to individual processes and to the whole system.

Improvement

Successful organizations everywhere have a continuous focus on improvement.

To maintain its current level of performance and to enhance it, the organization has to engage in improvement activities.  Improvement is also essential for the organization to respond to its internal and external conditions and in the creation of new opportunities.

The benefits are an improvement in performance and focus on root cause investigation and corrective &preventive actions. The organization develops an ability to respond to internal and external changes as well as risks and opportunities. The organization also considers incremental and breakthrough change.

Steps one can take are establishment of improvement objectives at all levels and put in improvement considerations into development of new products, services and processes. Educate employees to apply basic improvement tools and methodologies.

Evidence-based decision making

When an organization makes decisions which are based on analysis and evaluation of data then it is more likely to lead to desired results.

It is vital for the leadership to understand cause-and-effect relationships as well as potential unintended consequences.  Facts and data analysis leads to more objectivity and greater confidence in decision making.

The benefits of this approach are improved decision making processes and better assessment of process performance and ability to attain objectives. It also leads to better operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Steps you can take in this area are in determining, measuring and monitoring key indicators that demonstrate the organization’s performance. Ensure that data in accurate and make it available to the relevant personnel. Finally make decisions based on evidence and balance them with intuition and experience.

Relationship management

To achieve sustained results, the organization should manage its relationships with its interested parties like suppliers in a very good manner.

Interested parties influence the performance of the organization. Sustained results can be achieved when the relationships with all the interested parties are managed so that a positive impact is delivered on its performance.

Benefits of Relationship management are a supply chain which provides a continuous flow of goods and services. It also results in enhanced performance of the organization and the interested parties by better responding to the opportunities and constraints for each interested party.

Steps that the organization can take in this regard are determining the interested parties such as suppliers, customers, partners, employees, investors and their relationship to the organization. Determine relationships that need to be managed. Measure performance and provide feedback to interested parties so as to enhance performance. Share and pool information, expertise and resources for better outcomes.