The word quality seems to have two meanings,
Why ISO 9001 is Not Called a Customer Management System?For us quality professionals it means “fit for purpose”, ensuring that the product or service is the correct “quality” to do the job, no more no less. Is it able to satisfy the customer at the least possible cost?
However, in the everyday world, it means that when compared to others, is the product or service better, often with little regard for the cost. For example, a restaurant meal would be deemed better quality than a takeaway. A 5-star hotel is better quality than a 2-star hotel. Even though in both cases the amount of money handed over would be significantly more.
Does this then imply that if a business has a quality management system, that the products and services that it supplies are “fit for purpose” or “better when compared to others”?
If we look at the naming of other management system standards, there really is no double meaning; ISO 14001 is clearly about the Environment, ISO 45001 is clearly about OHS, and ISO 27001 is clearly about Information Security, the list goes on.
But this term “quality” could be seen as a bit misleading.
When the first “quality” standards started to appear, they were primarily focussed on manufacturing, and they gave rise to slogans like, “right first time”, “zero defects”, “delivered in full on time, DIFOT”. The emphasis is on reducing the number of faulty parts produced.
In recent times ISO 9001 has been embraced by more than just manufacturers. ISO 9001 certified organisations now include; government departments, design agencies, training companies, and even abattoirs. ISO 9001 has also changed and tried to keep up with the times and is now more about business processes and continual improvement than having everything written in documented procedures.
The original emphasis of ISO 9001 was on the business internally and about reducing defects, and therefore costs, and in turn, making the business more profitable due to less rework and less scrap. Now the emphasis is more on customer focus and enhancing customer satisfaction through the monitoring of customers’ perceptions, and whether their needs and expectations have been fulfilled.
In fact, it wasn’t until the 2000 version of ISO 9001 was released that customer satisfaction was required to be monitored. The 1994 version and before, only mentioned the customer with regards to; contract review, customer property, and customer complaints.
Is it, therefore, time to change the name of ISO 9001 from “quality management system - requirements” to “customer management system - requirements”? …and if it was changed would it make it clearer for people?
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