Why a quality manual?

by Sara
(USA)

Greetings Everyone,
I would like to raise a general question, maybe it has been raised already but I thing is interesting topic and would like to get some opinions on it.

Why a quality manual?

I mean the quality manual is the only document that is never read or used by anyone in the organization at least in mine. The external auditor come's and read it once a year and that's it.

Procedures, work instructions and a policies, that's what my organization and our customers are interested in, which is logical.

Maybe I am not in to the QMS industry long enough to understand, but a quality manual is completely useless, the only thing that it does is confirming the requirements of the standard and their are simpler ways of doing that.

I would like to hear someone ells opinion regarding quality manual and their purpose and benefits because currently I don't see any use in them.

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QM
by: Muhammad

A cross functional Matrix to describe how each requirement of the QMS has been addressed is more useful and practical than a QM which is but just regurgitation of the original standard and a wastage according to Lean principals.

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The need for a Quality manual!
by: Frank Green

Hi Sarah
I would start by making an assumption or two:
1. Your company has a Business Plan which provides a strategic framework.
2. It uses it to update the business processes in line with changing conditions.
3. It uses it to measure its KPI's too.

Now part of this Business Plan is the company's Operational Plan which lays out the who, what, when, and how of your daily operations over the course of the next year. It is meant to define how human, financial, and physical resources will be allocated to achieve short-term goals that support your larger strategic objectives.

On a day-to-day basis, your operations plan will answer questions like:
• Who should be working on what?
• How will we allocate resources on a given task?
• What risks do we face at present?
• How can we mitigate those risks?
Put simply, your operations plan is a manual for operating your organization – designed to ensure that you accomplish your goals. It’s a key piece of the puzzle for any goal-oriented team.

For a LEAN business the minimisation of all forms of waste is fundamental. I see the Quality Manual’s purpose as serving as the how-to document of your company’s operational processes. Any policy within your business that affects your ability to deliver high-quality products and meet your customer’s demands, can be detailed in the manual.

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Quality Manual is must
by: Saravanan Rajagopal

Quality Manual is key to success of the organisation.I agree with the question and concern over the current Practice. Quality Manual surely will have company vision, mission and quality policy statement & thereafter cross functional roles and responsibilities, procedure, work instructions, KPI,etc. If a organization has quality Manual and not following the manual & functioning based on individual experience and expertise, which can yield inconsistent performance and some time fails to deliver when those individuals left the organisation. My POV is a well defined system has to pull the people in operation main stream to function.Secondly quality Manual has to frequently update based on the performance and challanges faced and train the people accordingly.organisation need to create a culture to use the quality Manual not only in external audits but also in day to day life. Thanks

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Runway from standard manuals
by: Carlos Monteiro

The standard manual like we are used to see in most companies, responding to each clause of the standard is useless for sure. However, in my opinion we should always have a document,and we can call it QManual, mapping and linking all the processes and policies with the purpose of describing the overall Qsystem. I hope ir makes sense
Regards

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Very Important
by: AnonymousBeselam Andargie

The Quality manual is no more mandatory in ISO 9001:2015. But organizations can develop it. It is a general guideline. Even if it is not a mandatory document according to ISO 9001:2015, it should be developed for the purpose of the organization . After all it is a map of documentation to the system.

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Documentation approaches
by: Jacob Cherian

ISO 9001-2015 - Do not mention a Quality Manual anymore compared to its previous editions.

One should think about the context of the organization before creating its documentation.

A formal three or four tier systems is not the only way. Once an organization should decide what and how much to be documented. But need to define Policy, Scope, Objectives and what is needed to accomplish the work -depending on the needs, complexities, competencies of that specific organization's situation. So a Quality Manual in its conventional form is not a necessity from a certification perspective either .

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Why a Quality Manual
by: Ken Patchett

Every Quality System either paper based or on line needs an index and that is the Quality Manual

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Authority rolls down hill
by: Henry Bertram

The order of precedence for these documents could be, for example, Quality Manual, Policy, Procedure and Work Instruction. You would not expect the business leader (e.g. president, CEO etc.) to sign every document to provide the authority of his or her office to that document. Instead, the instructions of the business leader and his/her authority go into the approved Quality Manual and the policies are given the authority of the leader from the manual. The procedures get their authority form the policies and so forth.

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Why a quality manual?
by: Anonymous

A manual is only really a statement of intent and yes, it is only generally viewed during audits.Procedures and polocies form the backbone of a good QMS. There is a reasoning behind omitting this, and show the actual standard the company's QMS is based on.

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Quality Manual
by: Howard

The problem is that most Quality Manuals are rewrites of the standard and have no value at all.
The Quality Manual should be a short explanation to all the staff of what the company does,what it intends to do and how it intends to do it.
The best manuals are very short, visual and actual have something to say.
The problem is not in the requirement rather in the manuals.

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QUALITY MANUAL
by: HERBERT

QUALITY MANUAL IS ONLY A VEHICLE WHICH SUPPORTS HOW THE COMPANY OPERATES. AND IS A REFERECE INDEX OF OTHER DOCUMENTS IN PLACE DEVELOPED DURING AN IMPLEMENTATION OF AN STANDARD.

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THE QUALITY MANUAL
by: Adebiyi

A quality manual is a documentation of the policy, plan, processes, implementation, procedures guideline, responsibility and accountabilities, audit and review programme of an organisation developed, designed to deliver continouos quality improvement in product and service through continual improvement in the management system.

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Quality as a cornerstone of culture
by: Anonymous

Manuals are merely documents and are not really worth the paper they are written on.

That said creating the manual is an extremely important process.

If the creation of such an manual is done as a collaborative process it is an ideal opportunity to create a culture of quality and define exactly what that culture is.

The most successful organizations that I have worked at have made the creation process a foundation of who they are. Everyone has contributed and is consequently on board, understands and works towards creating that culture.

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the "thing" manual
by: Adel Zou'bi

Take for example my Kenwood TV manual, for the install, problem occurrence, responsible function, I should read it, the same for your company, it’s manual, addressing the frame of work inside the company, it is a reference point for the process and a charter.

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QUALITY MANUAL
by: Anonymous

Quality Manual is not something to be prepared for CB's assessors to be read once a year. It is a concise document describing the interaction of the QMS processes, defining the scope of the quality management system, including details of and justification for any exclusions, and including the documented procedures established for the quality management system, or a reference to them. This is a requirment of the standard.

So, a QM may be only a few pages...A quality manual written against the all requirements of the standard is useless and this should be avoided. However, in adition to the basic requirements of the standard, some organizations put seveal more pages introducing their organization, an organization chart, communication channels, and some text describing the general activities carried out.

QM is the top level document and is start point of QMS.

By the way, what responsibilities you have in your organization, Sarah?

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Quality Manual
by: Anonymous

Hi,
Quality Manual is a documentation on procedures, activities and processes indexed in a systematic one. It is also a guide of a way of doing things systematically and orderly. It should not be used once yearly or prior to the auditor's visit because this will reveal your intent to stifle continuous improvement. Quality manual cannot be written for life. Its a continual improvement booklet containing your organisation development in each process/ product.

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Necessity of a Quality Manual
by: Anonymous

Most companies ignore a Quality Manual until it is in trouble. Documentation of policies, procedures and processes are necessary for any company to remain compliant. A company that cares about their image and responsiblities to their customer's, suppliers and distributors will have a QM updated and implemented.

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use? quality manual
by: Anonymous

A quality manual should served as a bible for a company.

A catalyst in the output for any individual in the organization.

A quality manual serves as a guide in case memory has lost its use.

A quality manual should never lost its purpose.

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Response: Why a Quality Manual
by: Charlotte C. Qualls, RN, MA

The quality manual is important for any organization to have.

The manual is not only used once a year when accrediting organizations come to assess the organization but should be a guide for any employee to maintain the quality of their services.

It should be available at a known location or via intranet for any employee to read anytime there is any question about the quality of their practice.

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Quality Manual needs regular review and good execution
by: Anonymous

Currently Organizations are keen on getting external quality standard quality organization's certification i.e. ISO. I had experience on how to get a ISO certification and it evolves from procedural driven certifying to balance between procedure and customer's satisfaction.

ISO 9001 original version is very procedural driven. I agree with you that, after setting up the manual, seldom of employees review it regularly or periodically.

There are reasons for that :

-Managers or Senior executives are not keen on ensuring the compliance of the manual on its daily operation.
-They only review when something went wrong or getting complaints from customers/business partner;
-old or experience staff rely on their experience/memories i/o reviewing the manual on regular basis;
-Manual's content is not updated on regularly basis when the requirement or procedures have been changed- a kind of temporary outdated manual(before the annual audit by external auditors)
-Manual's content are not realistic to a certain extent or in part of procedures(eg. all incoming materials need 100% quality check in DC or warehouse before sending to various department/users while the logistics/delivery cycles are getting shorter and shorter).
-People will intend to skip part of the checking or make up quality checking reports(in order to be complied with the manual's requirement in order to pass the intrim/annual audit).
-External Certification is also a kind of marketing/promition tools.

Therefore senior management/board level executives are keen on getting this certification to enhance its corporate images on quality(particularly on production driven/related business/manufacturers.

The Pros of being certified helps the organization to review if their procedure/operations logical / effective by going through the operation of the whole organization; it is also an useful training tools for new employee.

The effectiveness of the manual relies on the execution. It needs a top side down driving force to push that.

Dennis Chung

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QUALITY MANUAL
by: Anonymous

Quality manual is used to align the employees with the company vision.

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quality manual
by: samir biswas

quality manual is the fountainhead of all the actions that takes place in the organizations.the policies, systems,procedures operating standard all flows from it step wise.

when it is followed, as intended,accuracy,consistency and repeatability is ensured.

it also guides us to corrective measures when desired results are not obtained.further improvement in performance is also prompted.

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why a quality manual
by: dimitris.agalos@ked.gr

Dear Sara

Because you have to show (advertise), demonstrate, that your conpany &your dept has a structure that complies with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008(for example) standard without giving procedure details. It describes what the company does.

Have a nice day
Dimitris Agalos

GENOME

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Why QM?
by: Anonymous

The Quality Manual purpose is to guide you doing the business, and you will get the benefit at the time you when you're constructing the document (you won't doing your business without direction, will you? Beside, we're human: NO BODY PERFECT)

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quality Bibel
by: Anonymous

one of the most important document in any organization is the quality manual; this is why I, am naming it the Quality Bible because it is the only document in the organization that contains the vital documents(organization, mission, vision, objectives, values, scope of services) and the identity and ethics of the organization.

It also gives clear ideas about the history, current status and the expectations of the near future of the organization.

Quality manual contains the status of the quality process in regards to control, improvement, staff development and the result of the annual quality assessment.

Dr. Jamal Hamdi, TQM director SAFH

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QM as reference point
by: Victor Hodibert

I think that the purpose of a quality manual is to serve as a reference point for correction, review, updating or upgrading of quality requirements and standards at any point in time, should there be the need.

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quality manual
by: jasim

this comment is correct because of the quality culture in the industrial organizations ,this needs better awareness and training about quality improvement system ,the manual is important to understand the system and the processes interactions .

so without this no complete picture will be clear to responsible people to do better improvement. part of the problem also from ex.auditors they don't recommend actions in this area.

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Quality Manual
by: Fred Sn

Quality Manual is a written commitment to the customer on the product or service the customer can expected.

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Why a quality manual
by: Joyce

Most QM is a simple copy of standard without any value. But if an organization has enough experience and give enough emphasis on QMS, the QM is very useful to show the full visage of the organization.

What's the organization do? what's the key process? It's the index to detail information.

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Quality Manual = Quality DNA
by: Nes Raneses

Hi Sara, your question is truly fundamental.If an organization truly believes in the true spirit of total quality, what basic function does a quality manual serve ? It DEFINES the Quality DNA of the organization.

What you are experiencing with your quality manual is a manifestation of how organizations adhere to the true spirit of truly thinking, breathing,living and improving how you do business in the best possible way.
All the best,

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Quality Manual what is its use.
by: Derren McAlpine

all QMS need some sort of structure in place and that is where the quality manual comes into play. it may appear never to be used except in audits but it is the main backbone of the whole quality system as it will regulate what work instructions and procedures are used and as other members have stated it is an index of the system and can often be refereed to an abstract of a companies quality ethos.

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Thank You
by: Sara

Dear All :

Thank you all for your help and your response ; it was really valuable .

Sara

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Why not?
by: najjarian

I agree with you that no one read Q.M.but it means that we don't need to it
when you learn to drive you don't need to read drive rules?

why the police penalize you ?

his bases is DRIVING RULES.
in a systematic approach we need to define all of elements in systems ,In holistic and local view.

Q.M is a holistic view that shall be meet local view in P and W.I(local view).

many years ago i found importance of Q,m. when i was in ROVER, WHEN WE NEGOTIATE ABOUT BUYING GEAR BOX LINE (COMPLETELY), I WAS Quality Assurance manager and I want to know HOW THEY CONTROL SYSTEM AND SELLERS DON'T LIKE TO GIVE US P AND W.I BECAUSE THEY INCLUDE PROPERTY RIGHTS AND VERY TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT BOTTOM LINE.

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Quality manual an essential part of management
by: Ranjeet Prajapati

Creation of quality manual is meant to ensure to achieve desired result each time and every time with same standard.there is a famous saying"memory may fail us,refer publication",hence we need manual& Standard operating Procedures.

Some times non adoption or non observance of rules of procedure may proved fatal.for example, a parachute before issue to actual user(para jumper)must be packed,stored,issued and handled in accordance with standard check list. same is case with aviation & explosive industries.

However,frequent& day to day referral to QM ,the quality guide lines becomes part of one's habit., in that case one may not use QM.

But frequent referral is must to update with latest quality amendment. so QM is not only important but very important document.

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QM is a constitution
by: Ashraf Youssef

QM is a constitution for any organization to define the road map to its system. In other word it is like a root for the tree.

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quality manual
by: kolade julius

it is a guide towards ensuring a specific mode of operation is followed at all time to maintain consistency.

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Why a quality manual?
by: Daniel

A Quality Manual is only as important as the upper management makes it.

In order for the QM to have any weight at all upper mgmnt needs to practice what they preach. This is not always the case in many corporations.

The QM is accessable to anyone who wants to review it as it points out the direction, procedures, and beliefs of the corporation.

This manual is usually not displayed properly and is used in many cases for punishment purposes instead of its intended use.

The QM should change or be reviewed Annually to improve or remove items that do not pertain to the workplace.

Try running that one by upper management and see what kind of resistance you get?

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WHY A QUALITY MANUAL?
by: BUDS M. FERNANDO

Preparing a quality manual basically follows the ISO-QMS principle: document what you do; and do what you document.

The general requirements are: Say what you do, Do what you say.

That's the logic behind documenting or developing a formal and structured approach to your operations.

You need to identify the important tasks and establish the sequence in which they should be performed. Important tasks farmed out to others (outsourcing) must be included.

You will need to identify measures and record information so that you know how you are doing from time to time in a given process or system.

A quality manual is also a quality plan with its given objectives, quality policy, targets, programs and designs based on what your customer wants.

Quality is what the customer says it is. Quality is conformance to requirements. And requirements either come directly from the customer or they come from you and are agreed to by the customer in a document called: Quality Manual.

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Quality Manual
by: Yasser

Your quality manual is the top level document that specifies your quality management system.

It describes top level standard operating procedures, processes and specifications.

Your customer will use it as a reference guide. Within the quality manual examples you describe the implementation and maintenance of the quality management system.

Quality manual examples benefits include:

Business Reference
Training standard
Continuity Standard
Improvement Audits
Meets quality management standards
Supports supplier quality

I developed a Quality Assurance Manual that you can simply edit and quickly produce one that is acceptable to ISO 9001 auditors.

I recommend starting with this manual , and then editing it to match your company?s terms. It is 30 pages long and covers all ISO 9001 elements necessary for certification.

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Holly quality doc
by: Bilal Al-kadri

Just consider the bible at home? how often do you read in it; however the QM is your holly quality document and a great start to establish an efficient QMS in your organization and companies out there where they copy & paste the standards in their QM is a wrong behavior,..Regards

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All Have The Same Problem
by: Anonymous

The most important doc. i would say. Some people need to be informed of how things should be done and thats what the QA manual should be used for. I tend to disagree to document what you do as what you do is not always the correct/best way of doing things."Read the manual, thats what we want you to do"
We all have the same problem that the QA manual is there for audits etc.
The bigest chalenge is to get people involved to take responsibility for his relevant clauses in the manual and maintain these sections ie:create update, implement. Not to transfer this responsibilty to the QA department.

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Quality Manual
by: Anonymous

Yes I agree, the vision should be aligned in manual. Irrespective of updating every year and following the process in compliance to QM, I have seen many of company employees not aware of the document nor its importance.
There should be a regulator training.

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QUALITY MANUAL
by: John Mathews

I have seen a manual with 10 pages with the description of documentation linkage and Organograrm which is accepted by a certifying body. Since it is a requirement of the standard probably we can shred the size.
Thanks
John

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Why do you need a quality mannual?
by: Durga Prasad

Quality mannual is necessary document.If the company purchases any parts or equipments or spares for installation and assembly you need a quality agreement. These are depicted in quality mannual how to use a quality agreement between company and vendors. Most of the quality revolves between company procedures of procurement, assembly, testing, disptach and customer service. Customer is like a Lion. Unless quality mannual is not in place there is no point in adhering to ISO 9001 guidance.

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Importance of Quality Manual
by: Narasimha Rao

A quality manual helps the resources in any organisation to know and understand the processes and procedures prevalent and helps in implementing in thier projects. People need to be educated in effectively using it for better understanding on the importance of quality and benefits that they get out of folllowing the processes.

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Keep it simple
by: Bill

Starting from the top and keeping it simple:
1. The nature of the product and the segment of the market the product is sold in, determine one set of requirements. The ISO standards another.
2. The Corporate Quality Policy makes a statement of 'what' the company intends to do to meet those requirements (This is a public document).
3. The Quality manual therefore serves 3 purposes:
1. As a governance document that elaborates on the controls necessary to achieve the Quality Policy
2. As a guiding document that helps the business to continually improve its efficiency through the use of the 8 quality principles.
3. As a map that 'shows' at a high level, 'how' the company achieves the requirements while doing business.

That simple and yet so hard for most to achieve. The Quality Manual, like the Safety Manual, is a corporate wide document that 'should' be used as the founding document for every other documentented process (the Quality Management System or systems). If not, then the company you are working in is not as efficient as it could be.

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why QM is required?
by: Anonymous

QM should contain quality policy, top management organizational structure, top mangement roles and responsibility and any exclusions from the stanadard requirements. Usually, brief application of clause wise requirements are shown in QM which is not required, instead it can be referenced to relevant procedures. Medha Servo Drives

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Leadership inerest on quality
by: Marvin flores

In with the 3rd largest cruise liner in the world now, what i van say in a quality manual is its seasonal in use, executive judgement still plays a big role on how should quality be enforce in the operations. I have work under ISO 9001:2008 and International Safety Management Code. same experience leadership directs quality.

Marvin Flores
Motivational Speaker and Organizational Developer

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Quality manual
by: Dinesh

QM is not for every member of the QMS but rather a summery of what and how the system is going to manage and perform the requirements of the ISO. It is basically for MR. MR has to decide if any section of the QM is necessary for any memeber of the QMS. Basically all work instructions and formats follow a syatematic reference and format that is defined in the QM. It is the basic Bible of the QMS.

System traceability is basically stictly based on the documentation and the system allowing quick and complete acess to the documets pertaining to the traceability is defined in the QM. every QC and QA personnel has to read and understand ( and of course agree or commnent on improvements).

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You Must have a QM
by: Jamil

If you have chosen to put your company adopt the ISO 9001 as your Management System then you have to fulfill all of its requirements. So every company does need a QM if it is following QMS. The system needs a QM as an essential part of its documentation system. Principally and simply it is a true reflection of ISO 9001 QMS requirements (Standard)describing how you fulfill each of its clauses' requirements. So if someone (may be other than auditor) wants to know the working of your system at a glance he can do so by going through your QM. The details of the system's working will be eleborated in other documents referred in the QM.

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Importance of Quality manual
by: James

Hi there
Gives structure, guidance, flow of companies processes and how it reaches its end process(product or service.This document states explicitly how companies processes are establish and are connected to each other.This document must be review at least annually for continual improvement and eventually customer satisfaction end market share.

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Quality Manual is Important
by: Anonymous

Quality manual is vital for that it is the general guide for the QMS as per the international standard. It is a short and brief overview of the company, processes and their interactions, management functions and reference for other resources including procedures and records. It indicates the effectiveness of the system by ways of data collection, analysis and continually improve the system. The generic standard is the base of the quality manual and sector specific system standards are to be customized once we understand it well.

AdugnaW, Mesfin
quality system consultant

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Manual is very important
by: David wang

When I join the new company, the first thing is to find the quality manual in order to have a quickly view of the whole organization, this is the only on real source to let the new guy including the auditor to know the organization

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quality manual is must for organization
by: Anonymous

I do not agree with comment that Quality Manual is useless. It is not used in regular operation as 2nd level document , it is top level corporate document.
Also it is a mandatory document as per the ISO 9001 standard.

1. Why the quality manual is important for organization

a. It has the quality policy approval by the CEO, to show commitment for implementation.
b. It has the current organization structure in real working .
c. It provide glance into the 2nd level operations procedure communication within the organization.
d. provide glance on management system in an organization in brief.
e. This document also provide details on any exceptions that organization considered during implementation.

2. What is main purpose of quality manual?

a) To provide details on scope of coverage ( products /services) within standard implementations.
b) To provide new upcoming customer or existing customer ..a details on an organization
c)It can prove stakeholders a look on systems exists.
d)It provides overview on top management commitment in place to accreditation body..

3. Is quality manual controlled ?

Yes it is controlled document ,
a) which will be subjected to review atleast once every 3 year and updated.
b) Also upon all documents at lower level review and modified. This can be done due to passage of time line , or audit , or changes proposed by management as part of improvement..

4. Why quality manual not reviewed often?

Quality manual is corporate document , it does not affect change as frequently as lower level document.

5. Can quality manual document cover multiple standard/

yes, multiple standards can have only one manual.

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Why Quality Manual?
by: Anonymous

Quality Manual is the foundation and framework from where you built your organisation. It is a plan, which sets the direction and navigates the organisation within the defined parameters. Like any plan it is good to revisit once annually and check against the agreed objectives, make changes where appropriate and reset the sails.

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Usage is a culture question
by: Julius Afolabi

i must say your question is a welcomed observation and a challenge to the quality environment.i am abit surprised that we spend so much of a time to carefully prepare a document for file away? i consider that a quality management failure.Now my questions is this, do leaders, supervisors and the downline refer to this quality manual in the course of their work,when they have their meeting or sessions on their improvement ideas. do managers even mention the content of the quality manual in passing?. these practices i believe portray relevance to a document. Do we have quality sessions where we marry what we do with the contents of the quality manuals? do we ever require a subordinate to refer or study a portion of the quality manual as a form of correction?i believe this is a quality culture awareness campaign because the quality manual is a documentary recipe of the corporate essence. to ignore it is to triviliaze the quality standard of the organization in people, product and services? then i say if these is trivialized, where is the business?

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Quality mannual
by: Daniel Jogal

yes u are right. No organization really follow the quality amnnual.
It is is just used as a mannual during external Audits.
If at the organizations follows this mannual seriously, it will give good results.

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Road map
by: Mahomed

It absolute important to have a quality manual. It provide the companys road map, basically it provide information as to how your company Quality management system works

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Purpose of Quality Manual?
by: Anonymous

As an organisational psychologist, I would be asking what exactly is the purpose of the quality manual, and other documents in the organisation. And other questions. I would be interesed in doing some research if anyone would be interested. Research ethics would be abided (confidentiality, consent, etc.). Please email me at drbarbaralond@gmail.com

Many thanks, Barbara
theblcgroup.co.uk

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Purpose of Quality Manual? (2)
by: Dr Barbara Lond

In terms of previous (anonymous) comment, and proposed research, I would be looking at a similar, but including qualitative/case study research to examine similar to/elaborate on, this study, with further questions:

The following is an abstract from the International Journal of QM done in 1999:

Tests the strength of the relationship between TQM practice and organisational performance with and without the covariates, company size, industry type, and ISO 9000 certification status. Analysis is primarily of a large random sample of manufacturing companies in Australia and New Zealand. The central finding of the study is that TQM tends to have mixed results when covaried for company size and industry type. The relationship between TQM and organisational performance is not affected when covaried for ISO 9000 certification status. Concludes that there are significant differences in the relationship between TQM and organisational performance across industry sectors and different size companies, particularly on the effect of defect rates, warranty costs and innovation of new products. The main implication of the findings for managers is that a typical manufacturing organisation is more likely to achieve better performance in employee relations, customer satisfaction, operational performance and business performance, with TQM than without TQM.
Dr Barbara Lond
theblcgroup.co.uk

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QA Manual
by: Victor

In our company, though we're not yet ISO-accredited we have a complete set of procedures and instructions anchored in ISO. You have a point though, especially when we require our Contractors to have one too, I know how useless papers look like.
But simply having a QA Manual is one step to show that a company has a systematic approach to achieving quality,or at least a goal to do things right for Customer Satisfaction.
I'm a QC engineer and for me our Manual serves as the benchmark of our work, we don't simply copy-paste standards and codes here but show all related aspects of work and how quality is to be ensured in a clear-cut way, even by newly-hired staff.
Of course, it's common that most won't read a long technical stuff, so we must teach the Manual too, gather comments and update it when needed, regularly.

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Quality Manual
by: Anonymous

Interestingly, the ISO 9001:2015 draft version has omitted Quality Manual. I wonder what would be the reaction of those who justified the existence of it. The way things are, the CD version will be adopted as DIS and rarely it has ever happened that a DIS changes. It goes without saying that the DIS will be adopted as FDIS, finally to an ISO doc/standard.

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QA Manual is important
by: Terry Noble

Hello,
First time provider.
Both myself and the QA Manager before me spent long hours developing our QA Manual. The manual is an important document that details to a potential customer how your company assures the quality of control.
Our Shop Traveler maintains a format that is outlined in your manual. Of course, very few read it...seems companies want a QA Department to allow them to bid on jobs; however, QA/QC is not a money maker in itself, except in the big picture.

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Quality Manual 9001:2008
by: Stanley Louis

Consider these:
1. ISO9001:2008 can be thought of as a set of good business practices. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to check out your vendors before you buy from them? After all, what you buy usually is reflected by what you sell, and you want to sell only the best. And if a vendor screws up repeatedly, wouldn’t it be good to keep track of these screw ups, and weed out the bad vendors? ISO9001 will help you with this.
2. Having your ISO9001:2008 certificate sets you apart from your competition. Worldwide, knowledgeable buyers will tend to think that you have your act together, and that your quality is probably better than your non-ISO competitors.
3. Isn’t it a good idea to keep track of your company non compliance, and fix them so that they never happen again? How many hours and dollars has your company spent dealing with the same problem over and over? Wouldn’t it be nice to deal with it just once? ISO 9001: 2008 will help you with this.
4. Do you really know where you stand with your customers? Wouldn’t it be good to have a formal process to measure customer satisfaction? How can you know where to best focus your improvement efforts if you don’t have data on what areas need fixing?
5. Do you have complete and up-to-date training for your people? With fewer people on your payroll, you really don’t want to take it for granted that someone has been adequately trained for a particular job. Isn’t it a good idea to periodically evaluate how effective their training has been?
There are so many reasons why having an ISO9001:2008 QMS is an advantage in today’s economy. I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg here.

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Quality manual blues
by: Wayne Guthrie

I agree that the Quality manual is an important document for an organization. I have seen too many Quality manuals that are a mirror image of the standard-line for line. Useless, but fulfills a requirement. The manual should be a reference tool for your employees and a selling point of your business. It should be easily understood. Remember your audience. To most people, the standard is merely "legal jargon" and not to be copied and pasted into a manual. From a macro perspective, it should outline your organization and business plan. IT IS A BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM supported by Quality principals and tools. Don't write the Quality manual to please an auditor

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My views.
by: Rangaraju A S

Question is right.One must practice what one preach. Simply writing all sorts of standards without practicing it is on no way advantageous to the company. You might remember many companies have recalled their vehicles reported defective in their performances. Had there been a strict following of QM,this situation would not have arisen. People are compromising with quality of their products. This certainly affects the credibility of the company.
Her question should be an eye opener.

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QHurrey!! Quality Manual Not Required Now :)
by: Praveen Kumar

A current change in ISO:9001-2015 is happening and expected to release in September 2015. Which states there is no mandatory requirements for quality manual in an organization.

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QM
by: Esli

Well expressed QM serves as marketing tool as well, not necessary to express details, just ensure structure, control and objectives are clear, and that product or services are well defined. ISO is meant to benefit, not become burden.

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Quality Manual
by: Daniel Marshall

The new ISO standard does not require a "quality manual per se.
Because of this we have streamlined our manual and made it into a "company map". It only contains the company name, what we produce, what quality system we ascribe to (ISO9001:2015), a graphical representation of the interaction between processes and external interested parties, the few exceptions, and a useful and approachable index of our procedures.
Some customers still want a copy of our "manual", but is has evolved into a business plan, so we can't give it out anymore.

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QMS
by: Marvin Flores

In my experience and being involve in 5 Industries. This QMS shall serve as guidelines if not to be the system itself. Truth be told, less than 10% reads it, especially if the industry in not in the Manufacturing. I do believe in the wisdom why it is still there. It will always serve a the true North.

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