End and beginning of the year is a period in which companies are planning for the year so that they can smoothly achieve their corporate objectives and the quality management system (ISO 9001: 2015)
Requirement 6 is certainly one of the most important of the ISO 9001 standard, no wonder, it will guide the entire journey of your company, so we have some tips for you to take into account when formulating your planning.
Invite as many people as possible to participate in planning
This is the famous brainstorm, the more people you have gathered inside a place focusing on the same time, there will be different ideas and points of view, which can bring down something already thought, as well as propose something even better.
Furthermore, as the name of the standard itself reminds us, it is a quality management system, as there are several integrated parts for quality management, so often your thinking may end up skewed within one area and end up disfavoring another, so it is ideal for people on both sides to have a healthy discussion.
Measure process changes
The standard specifies in item 6.2.1 about the objectives:
a) be consistent with the quality policy; b) be measurable; c) take into account applicable requirements; d) be relevant to the conformity of products and services and to increase customer satisfaction; e) be monitored; f) be communicated; g) be updated as appropriate.
All of this is important, but there is something that is not within the norm, but that can make a lot of difference for you to achieve these goals: measure the changes in your process.
The standard even tries to address the change plan in requirement 6.3, but it also does not mention anything very specific.
Many companies usually set goals and plans to achieve them, but when the results do not match the role, despair hits, and something that can reassure you is to measure the changes in your process so that based on your history you know which step to take is being flawed and correct just that point.
Do a good context analysis
Obviously, there are events that you cannot predict, but there may be others that impact your business a lot and you should predict the scenarios, be it an election, a future hiring, moving or creating an office, etc., the possibilities are many.
This part of the planning has a lot to do with risk management, so that you can predict and plan how to mitigate impacts to your company.
So, when you do your planning, have studied factors that can influence and how to get around them.
I hope these tips have helped and that you start 2021 with a much better expectation and clear goals.
