The cornerstone of every successful organisation that manages to fulfil the expectations of its customers and other stakeholders group is a Quality Management System (QMS). An effective QMS is a big necessity for all businesses today, even small-sized enterprises because it helps them to persistently enhance or maintain the quality of their products or services. The answer to the common question i.e., what are the effects of QMS on an organisation is hence straightforward! It helps an organisation to raise the quality and value of their products or services, satisfy the customers better, and achieve consistent growth.
The following section of the blog digs deeper into the effects of the QMS and explains why you should have it too for your organisation. However, before that, let’s just briefly understand what QMS is.
A Quality Management System or simply, QMS is a structured management framework for businesses. It enforces processes or practices in the organisation that help them to minimise errors in their operations and deliver goods or services of superior quality. In other words, the QMS provides processes for reviewing the end-to-end operations in a business, including the resources used and roles of employees. Such continuous reviewing helps in identifying the areas that need improvement to create a positive impact on the quality of end products or services.
A QMS is an inherent requirement for organisations in all sectors, regardless of the size or nature of products/services. An effective QMS is also useful to keep up with the fierce competition in the market. By providing a proper approach to run every operation smoothly and deliver output timely, it aids a business to survive better in the market.
The trend of implementing or reinforcing the QMS in organisations is growing because of the following potential benefits that have been seen.
Organisations which establish a QMS can reduce errors in their operations and improve efficiency. A part of the QMS defines how operations should be executed for the intended outcomes. For that, it provides guidelines to employees on how to perform their respective duties or responsibilities in various operations. As QMS makes it necessary to document everything, there is less scope for the employees to make mistakes and result in discrepancies in the operations. Implementation of a QMS also results in operational efficiency by simplified troubleshooting of issues so that management can find appropriate solutions and train employees to make operations as efficient as possible again.
A QMS requires you to streamline and organise the processes of your business which further contributes to efficiency. You are hence required to carefully maintain documentation of the running processes and keep records for analysis of the process outcomes. This ensures that you not only have systematically arranged processes but also have complete visibility of their outcomes. Therefore, you can make correct decisions or choices for the business and eliminate costly mistakes from the processes.
A successfully established QMS in the organisation works to ensure that every customer expectation is met by their products or services. It hence uplifts the confidence or trust of the customers in your products or services. Keeping customers satisfied and acquiring their loyalty is a big win-win condition for your business. It assists you to consistently capture the market with a greater share. Also, when present customers are satisfied, they refer your company to others. As a result, your potential to win new customers increases.
A QMS also helps you to handle efficiently the customer complaints, queries, or feedback, and assure a positive customer experience even after sales. A part of the QMS calls for collecting and analysing the customer reviews or complaints so that you can take prompt action to resolve their issues. Moreover, when you have a proper record of the complaints, you know the issues in your products/services and take measures to rectify them in the following production cycle.
An integrated QMS in the organisation addresses the need for smooth, uninterrupted internal communications. It especially means communication among the employees across different departments. A QMS is responsible for facilitating communication across the organisation by providing a series of documents and common policies. Employees need to come together to follow them and create a core quality-driven culture where everyone is able to share their thoughts and decisions.
A QMS also emphasizes two-way communication between the management and employees, where each can provide necessary feedback and take crucial decisions in favour of the business.
Lastly, a QMS helps in increasing the bottom line of your business i.e., profits. It is the direct financial effect of the system on the organisation. All the above internal and external effects of the QMS together contribute to the financial improvement or increasing profits.
• Operational efficiency results in lowering of costly downtime and production losses which further leads to cost savings
• Increased customer satisfaction results in rising sales and allows smoother entry to new markets which increases the revenue
• Employees are motivated to perform better with necessitating training and documentation which increases the productivity and sales of the organisation
The study of the above useful effects of the QMS highlights a major fact i.e., organisations are able to improve their efficiency and ensure consistency of their products/services. It acts as the foundation for their market approval and success, in the short run and long run.
The QMS, in the first place, helps organisations to smoothly attain their objective of providing fine-quality products or services. To put it simply, it helps them to fulfil their commitment of satisfying their customers and grab a large market share. In the attempt to fulfil that, it helps organisations to overhaul their process management, promote internal communication, eliminate risks or errors, and continuously drive a quality culture in the organisation.
Necessarily, the implementation of an effective standardised QMS like ISO 9001 needs full-fledged participation of the top tier management of the organisations. With leadership, there is also a need for a relevant quality policy and measurable objectives regarding quality and business performance that will form the basis of the QMS.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to implement a QMS for your organisation, get in touch with our team of quality assurance experts at Compliancehelp!
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