Quality management was traditionally linked to factory management and production processes, but in recent years it became more and more important in the services industry. In fact, all organisations that want to monitor and improve their customer services need to apply processes and procedures summarised under the term “quality management”.
In the recent years, an increasing number of professional support institutions and (business) associations applied for internationally recognised quality management certificates, like ISO 9000 certification, in order to demonstrate their commitment to quality and gain a competitive advantage in their markets.
What is quality management? QM focuses on the customer, it describes the institution’s effective approach towards how to meet the customer expectations, how to respond to inquiries and deal with problems in the best way. Basically, the quality management system explains how the institution achieves quality services and products.
Quality standards like the ISO 9000 series developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation provide a framework to fix and describe important key processes used for the production and delivery of the institution’s products and services. An organisation holding an ISO certification has put a quality management in place that was audited and registered by a formal ISO authorisation body.
In order to introduce quality management in your institution you will have to develop and employ a quality system. You will then decide whether you want to get formally registered or not.
The quality system comprises the organisational structure, procedures, processes and resources you need to achieve and maintain a desired level of quality. Once defined, the quality system will be exactly documented in the form of:
- documents defining the quality policy (e.g., sales and after sales services)
- written procedures that need to be followed to implement quality policy (e.g. sales procedures)
- instructions for staff carrying out the procedures (e.g., explanation how to phone a potential customer, how to summarise customer feedback data, etc.)
- records kept in order to demonstrate that quality management system is working (e.g. customer database, trainers and presenters database including feedback feed-back results, etc.)
The following description of the importance of the quality elements for associations is summarised from “Quality Management for Associations: A Practical Guide to ISO 9000”, issued by the Canadian Society of Association Executives (http://www.csae.com). For further and more detailed information refer to the guide and its helpful worksheets. The guide can be downloaded under the above Internet address.
Management Responsibility: The institution management will have to make a formal commitment to quality in the form of integrating quality in the mission and objectives, nominating a person responsible for the quality system, train staff in quality management and/or evaluating the quality system on a regular basis.
Quality System: This element refers to the necessity to produce a quality system and a manual that describes it. At the end of this chapter the guide refers to the draft quality manual of the Canadian Society of Association Executives that can be used as a template for your institution.
Contract Review: The institution will have to review any contract before signing it and have a process for apprising staff of contract amendments. Furthermore you should keep records to demonstrate that contract reviews take place.
Design Control: mostly not applicable
Document and Data Control: The institution will have to develop procedures for controlling and updating the quality system documents. These include who reviews the documents and approves changes. How are these changes recorded and where are old documents stored. How are changes or new documents distributed, etc.
Purchasing: The institution will have to implement procedures regarding the purchase of products and services. Procedures focus on evaluation of suppliers depending on valid criteria and value limits, inspection of received products and evaluation of services, etc.
Control of customer-supplied product: mostly not applicable
Product Identification and Traceability: more limited, maybe applicable for training materials and publications. The institution should maintain a cataloguing system of identification numbers and unique titles in order to recall items with problems or defects
Process Control: The element refers to the development of procedures for planning, monitoring and controlling the delivery of services and products. You can for example use procedures for how to plan the individual programmes (template plans) and establish work plans (template plans). Furthermore, the Institution should define how programmes should be managed in terms of what are the basic steps to be done, what are the reports to be used, what are the quality criteria, etc.
Inspection and Testing: The institution might describe how products and services are tested before selling them to customers. The institution should note all test results and if necessary improve the tested items to better fit the client’s needs.
Control of Non-conforming Product: The institution should use procedures that ensure the control and correction of products and services that do not meet the specified quality. For example: procedures how to review, correct and authorise all publications before printing
Corrective and Preventive Action: The element refers to procedures that describe how complaints and customer or member problems are dealt with.
Handling, Storage, Packaging, Preservation and Delivery: This element applies especially to publications and training materials. Define procedures that explain how to store, pack and send your products to customers (e.g, how are CD-ROMS sent out, publications are stored in a dry place, etc.…).
Control of Quality Records: Relevant quality records for institutions comprise contract reviews, quality planning reports, purchasing templates, non-conformance reports, internal evaluation checklists and audits, client and member surveys/feed-back, customer questionnaires, eetc.
Training: The institution will have to ensure that the staff is able to fulfil their duties. Annual appraisals and performance feed-backs should be used to identify further training needs. Keep records of the need identification and the proposed solution as well as training granted to staff members. The staff should also be informed and if necessary trained in the quality system.
Servicing: not applicable as it refers to delivering products that need maintenance service
Statistical Techniques: This element should ensure that questionnaires and surveys used in the quality system use sound statistical methods.
See attached Quality System Manual (Appendix 1 to the Guide on Quality Management for Associations).
Source: Canadian Society of Association Executives