Strong ISO 9001 QMS – Launchpad to Business Excellence Awards !!

Indian Businesses have tasted overall success by Institutionalizing “Quality Management Frameworks (QMFs)” like European Foundation of Quality Management Award (EFQM, Europe), Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA, USA), Deming Award for TPM (JIPM, Japan). Such businesses are few and only a fraction of vast number of Large and Medium enterprises we have in India. Based on similar models, we have QMFs in India as well like the Ram Krishna Bajaj National Quality Award (RBNQA), the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM), and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) etc. Successes of such enterprises have inspired others as well. During my interactions with CEOs, I often observe a craving to implement such QMFs in their businesses for sustainable growth.

On interaction with CEOs and Quality Professionals of organizations, who have successfully implemented one of these frameworks and have benefited in terms of business results; these people quite vehemently confirmed to me that, they could do it so well because they had robust quality management system based ISO 9001. They told me ISO 9001 provided them a very strong launch pad to embark on their onward journey of implementing one of these QMFs.

Being an ardent supporter of ISO 9001, I got impressed and intrigued by these assertions, which are certainly pleasing when ISO 9001 reputation in our country is so low. This led me to study these QMF/ Business Excellence Models in more detail. During my study, what struck me most was that Quality Management Principles on which ISO 9001 is based are fundamentally same in all of these models. “Leadership, customer focus, improvement, engagement of people, process approach, relationship management and decision making based on data” are fundamental principles for any business to succeed and so it is not surprising that these principles are at the core of each of these Excellence Models.

Let us examine what few key aspects ISO 9001 based QMS brings to the table.

a. Defined processes have a clear sequence of activities and responsibilities of action. In all the Business Excellence Models, it is required that work flows and responsibilities are clearly understood by the people.

b. Risks in the form of potential internal and external issues are already identified and mitigation measures are already built into Processes/procedures as well as action plans. With such preventive mechanisms, organization can focus on performance improvement projects as each of these business excellence model demands the same.

c. Trained and Skilled employee pool follows defined processes/procedures. Hence, it is a readymade platform to direct energies of this disciplined workforce towards improvement projects.

d. Data indicating performance trends is defined based on key indicators to help prioritise focus. Organised and long term Data availability is an important aspect for any decision making. In the entire business excellence model, this availability of data shortens the time of completion of projects with improvements.

e. A sound and reliable measurement system. All Business Excellence Models rely very heavily on accuracy of measurements/data since wrong measurements can lead to over adjustments and show problems where none exists.

ISO 9001 based Quality Management System must be robust and implemented with rigour, only then it will support the vision of delivering great value to your customers without putting extra workload and stress to your own employees. Once this first objective of robust QMS is achieved, only after that the organization needs to look at such QMFs and Excellence Awards. QMSs and QMFs don’t contradict each other, but rather complement each other. In today’s highly competitive world, it is important to seize every opportunity and gain competitive advantage.

TUV India being one of the first certification bodies to pioneer quality and safety revolution in India always look forward to work with various organisations to facilitate the process of achieving the ISO 9001 certification.