Quality management system

A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction. It is expressed as the organizational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality management. Early systems emphasized predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labour inputs were typically the most costly inputs in most industrialized societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the early signalling of problems via a continuous improvement cycle. In the 21st century, QMS has tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor and customer satisfaction and perceived quality is increasingly tied to these factors. Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide - the ISO 19011 audit regime applies to both, and deals with quality and sustainability and their integration.

Management system

A management system is the framework of policies, processes and procedures used to ensure that an organization can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its objectives.

For instance, an environmental management system enables organizations to improve their environmental performance through a process of continuous improvement. An oversimplification is "Plan, Do, Check, Act". A more complete system would include accountability (an assignment of personal responsibility) and a schedule for activities to be completed, as well as auditing tools to implement corrective actions in addition to scheduled activities, creating an upward spiral of continuous improvement.

Also as in the aforementioned management system, an occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) enables an organization to control its occupational health and safety risks and to improve its performance by means of continuous improvement.

Examples of management system standards include:

Quality management

Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service is consistent. It has four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality.

Evolution