Leadership and Commitment 2 of 2

Leadership and commitment are key drivers in achieving ISO 9001:2015 certification and ensuring ongoing success in meeting customer expectations and delivering high-quality products and services.

Quality Policy

The first step in establishing the Quality Management System is to define the quality policy and quality objectives. The intent of the Quality policy is to provide top management’s vision on quality management of the organization. Quality Policy is a way through which top management can project its commitment toward quality to internal as well as external stakeholders.

The Quality Policy should capture the purpose and context of the business and provide a framework for setting up the Quality objectives. The Quality Policy should specify your commitment to ‘satisfy applicable requirements’ and ‘continually improve the effectiveness of your QMS’.

The quality policy represents the organization’s core values and it strengthens the company’s commitment to quality; it is important that it is understood well within the organization and each employee is aware of the quality policy. This can be achieved when the quality policy is documented, communicated, and understood within the organization.

Communicating the Quality Policy

It can be made available on your website, your employee handbook/quality manual, or displayed at various locations in the office so that employees read and imbibe its values in day-to-day work. It can also be made available when onboarding new employees and made part of the onboarding process.?It is also important to make the quality policy available to external interested parties, like customers/suppliers, etc. This can be done through your website/marketing material or communicated through emails, whenever requested.

Quality Policy shall be reviewed periodically by top management based on changes in the context of the organization. This can be done during management reviews.

Organizational roles, responsibilities, and authorities

This sub-clause of ISO 9001 requires that the top management provide adequate resources and assign responsibilities and authorities necessary to implement QMS effectively.

A simple method of doing this is to define the organizational structure and associated hierarchies.

Various methods like job descriptions, organization maps/ charts, procedures, work instructions, etc can be used to define organizational structure and responsibilities within the organization.

A sample organization chart of a small training institute is given below:

The intent of the clause is to ensure that each employee understands their role with respect to the implementation and reporting of elements of the QMS and to maintain focus on customer requirements.

• Job Descriptions

is an easy mechanism through which you can specify what training, qualifications, and experience each job role requires.

This will help you in getting the right candidates while hiring for a position and also ensure that the employee is clear on the job requirements and his /her responsibilities.

• These organizational structures/roles and responsibilities need to be communicated and deployed throughout the organization via orientation programs, training, meetings, or through procedures, or work instructions.

Additionally, the top management needs to continuously work towards optimizing the processes and bringing in changes and improvements to the QMS. Employees shall be encouraged to also suggest opportunities for improvements and the top management shall ensure that the integrity of QMS is maintained when these changes are planned and carried out.

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In conclusion, effective leadership and commitment are vital for the successful implementation and maintenance of ISO 9001:2015. They drive the organization's commitment to quality and ensure that the quality management system remains effective and aligned with business goals.

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