DOES YOUR QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DELIGHT?

Objective/Purpose:

To show, using quality-tools and metrics, how a Quality Management System may be analyzed to assess to what degree it satisfies customers' requirements, and how to identify and prioritize improvements.

Abstract

Key Words: Continual Improvement, Customer Complaints Customer Delight, Customer Perception, Customer Requirements, Customer Satisfaction, Effectiveness, First-Right-Batch, Integration, ISO-9001: 2000 Standard, On-Time Delivery, Performance Measurement, Quality Management System, Process Approact, Response Time

Many organizations have adopted the ISO-9001 standard as the basis for their quality management systems (QMS), driven by internal motivation and/or in response to customer mandates. The new ISO-9001:2000 standard promotes a process approach to enhance customer satisfaction, and requires:

• continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS, and,
• measurement of the performance of the QMS as perceived by the customer.

How the effectiveness of the QMS is measured or improved is not prescribed in the standard. Many organizations do not conduct formal customer satisfaction surveys (because of costs, limited resources, past experience, etc.), and/or may not receive formal performance-reports (e.g. supplier-evaluations) from their customers.

This presentation reviews an actual case where simple tools (e.g. supplier performance forms, FMEA's, C/E-diagrams) and available sources of information (e.g. complaints and their responses, first-right-batch data, on-time-delivery data, sales-call reports, etc.) were used to evaluate the organization's QMS-performance in satisfying customer requirements and to identify the needs and opportunities for improvement of processes. It also reviews how this improvement includes better integration of these processes.

Bio

Charles J. Marsman is the Quality Manager for the Metalorganics (Electronic Materials) Business of Rohm and Haas Company, LLC at North Andover, MA. His previous experience includes over 30 years in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Quality Management with Monsanto and Solutia companies in diverse industries and international operations. He has specialized in Business Process Improvement and Quality System Development, and has guided numerous ISO- and QS9000 registration efforts in different organizations and countries.

Charles received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue, and MEChE- and MBA-degrees from Tulane University. He is a registered Professional Engineer, and an ASQ-Certified Quality Manager, Quality Engineer, and Quality Auditor.