Every skilled professional knows that having essential indicators for ISO 9001 is one of the best ways to monitor the Quality Management System (QMS), identify improvements or issues, and ensure the satisfaction of customers and other interested parties.
With this in mind, the ISO 9001 standard text itself, version 2015, provides a dedicated section on performance evaluation (section 9). So, beyond being important for understanding process execution and daily results, these indicators also help us meet a normative requirement and get a step closer to the sought-after ISO 9001 certification.
In general, there are dozens of indicators that support our organizations, whether related to standards or not. Therefore, in today’s article, we’ve selected 3 essential indicators for ISO 9001. These metrics are extremely useful both in managing and maintaining a strong QMS. So, if your company doesn’t have them yet, it’s worth considering their implementation! That said, let’s dive into the content.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction
The first indicator we’ll discuss is perhaps the most important of all. ISO 9001, within the Performance Evaluation requirement, presents a specific subitem and requires companies to measure and monitor customer satisfaction (9.1.2). Thus, having an indicator to assess how our customers view our products, services, and organization is essential.
In addition to being a normative requirement, having good customer satisfaction indicators also helps us understand what needs improvement, how our deliveries are perceived, and even to monitor potential issues that arise with changes in external context or processes.
The customer is the most important interested party in any organization since everything executed ultimately aims to satisfy them. Additionally, in most cases, it is the customer who brings financial resources to the company, enabling growth and further investment. Therefore, measuring customer satisfaction is much more than an ISO 9001 obligation; it’s a success factor for your company!
Measuring Process Effectiveness
The foundation of ISO 9001 is customer satisfaction. And to satisfy them, we need effective processes that deliver what they need. Thus, another of the essential indicators for ISO 9001 relates to understanding how effective our processes are.
This simply means evaluating whether the company’s deliveries and activities truly provide what was planned at the beginning of the chain and, even more importantly, what was agreed upon with our customers.
Thus, throughout the process, we need key indicators to monitor everything we deliver and ensure greater process compliance, as well as customer satisfaction. It’s also worth mentioning that these indicators can help monitor goals and act to correct the course in case of strategic divergences, making them even more necessary and important in all contexts.
Measuring Your Nonconformity Handling Proces
Finally, we can’t discuss essential indicators for ISO 9001 without addressing the nonconformity rate. Although many people may shy away from discussing NCs, they are vital tools for improvement and can shed light on many issues within your company.
These nonconformities can come in various forms, such as internal process deviations—which impact the previous indicator—or customer complaints, operational failures, nonconforming products or services, and more. By identifying these factors, it’s possible to work on improving processes and preventing future occurrences. This leads to profits, better processes, and increased satisfaction for customers and interested parties.
Therefore, it’s essential to create indicators that monitor and understand what is going wrong (NCs) to ensure we are not only identifying problems but also resolving what was identified. For example, an indicator that hasn’t shown any nonconformity discoveries for a long time may reveal a flaw in the identification process. Another could monitor the ratio of identified versus resolved NCs and even track the effectiveness of resolutions that truly eliminated the root cause.
Essential Indicators for ISO 9001: The Path to Success!
Regardless of your organization’s industry, indicators function like a beacon in the fog. They illuminate the path, show the correct direction, and warn of obstacles that need to be avoided to keep the ship from sinking!
By monitoring customer satisfaction, process effectiveness, and nonconformity handling, we ensure that our quality ship (our company and processes) stays on course, continuously advancing toward a destination of excellence and competitiveness in the market (achieving customer satisfaction and compliance).
Now it’s up to you to get hands-on and identify if these metrics are already part of your company’s performance evaluation. If they aren’t, it’s time to implement these controls and enhance your management! If they are already in place, take the time to review each indicator and understand if they’re showing what your company needs to know.
