Good quality improves business performance; bad quality damages it
26th June 2010
Here is another great article, business and product quality consultant Tom Gaskell, looks at how good quality improves business performance and bad quality damages it and is costly in so many ways. The article looks at how you can audit yourself and continuously improve the way your business runs…
To go somewhere that you want to be you need to know where you are now; otherwise how do you know in which direction to travel?
A key element of many Quality Management Systems – for example, ISO 9001 – is the idea of self-assessment, often called ‘internal audit’. This differentiates itself from the external audit where an expert body such as BSI or LRQA or others comes in and assesses you against an official Standard.
The internal audit is done by members of an organisation for its own benefit and is seen as more frequent, less formal, and hugely beneficial in that it helps both the auditor and auditee equally – everyone learns something.
Although some purists insist on acting in loco Assessment and Certification body, making the internal audit indistinguishable from its external cousin, I have always taken a more flexible, friendly and interactive approach to get the best out of the process. (Not to imply that external auditors can’t be friendly too, of course!).
As an internal auditor (whether a member of the organisation’s staff or not) I think you are there not only to assess whether the Standard or the processes are being implemented as it ‘says on the tin’, but also to help the auditee understand the system and to improve the processes or procedures where they fall short of what is required, preferably before they lead to problems in products or services or other areas. It allows people to express their concerns and views about how work is done in the organisation, and it helps you to identify best practice. In other words, this is a key mechanism for ensuring Continuous Improvement.
Read the article in full on Cambridge Network