How should a quality management system be advanced?

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Quality system management has become essential and fashionable in various industries, but few are able to actually utilize it to generate benefits and improve corporate management levels. Whether quality system management holds a prominent position within a company determines the fate of its survival and development. Whether quality system management holds a prominent position within a company determines the attitude the company adopts toward product quality, as well as the philosophy guiding its operations. Products of poor quality bring endless problems to a company, leading to decline and even bankruptcy. Quality system management has become essential and fashionable in various industries, but few are able to actually utilize it to generate benefits and improve corporate management levels. Puzzles in implementing and maintaining a quality management system: 1. Focus only on having a quality management system certification. 80% of the top management in companies are only concerned with obtaining such certification; they show no interest in, understand nothing about, or make no effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the quality management system. In some cases, the quality management function is treated as a secondary department, which leads to resistance among managers and employees toward following the standards set by the quality management system, resulting in people continuing to work as they see fit. Such long-term development inevitably leads to a situation of disconnection in corporate management, where the systems established do not match actual operations. Quality system management is carried out merely to obtain certifications and to give a superficial appearance of order; the actual management of the factory remains on a \"despotic\" level, with leadership failing to give proper importance to quality management at all. 2. They are merely weapons for self-protection within an enterprise. Quality system procedure documents represent a summary of quality management in the course of business operations; they serve as regulatory guidance documents. However, such procedure documents cannot cover everything. It is only through proper quality awareness and mindset, and by addressing quality issues based on the causal relationships inherent in processes, that it is possible to develop these procedure documents as a guide for future actions, through continuous summarization and refinement. In many companies, the quality management system documents have essentially become weapons for various departments to use for self-protection within the company’s management structure. The departments involved in discussing issues each hold their own views, relying on these documents as a basis for their arguments in order to shirk responsibility; this leads to severe internal conflicts, with decisions often difficult to reach and even harder to implement once made. In daily management, one first discusses the conditions before taking action, and bargaining takes place. They rush to do the things that are profitable and are reluctant to do those that aren’t, always able to use official regulations as an excuse to justify their actions. For matters that truly cannot be pushed through, one emphasizes objective factors, uses \"procedures\" as a buffer, or agrees to certain conditions before accepting. 3. Believing that the quality system can solve everything. The documents related to the quality system outline basic procedural requirements; it is within this framework that we should use the eight management principles of the quality system to address product-related issues in a company’s operations, rather than using quality system management to blame everything that goes wrong in business operations. In fact, in the process of enterprise management, there is quality system management, human resources system management, financial system management, business decision-making management, and so on. Quality system management is merely the management of aspects related to product quality within the production and operation process. 4. The passive or even incorrect use of quality management system documents – treating quality system management merely as a means for supervisors to issue orders and conduct inspections, such as centralized audits, special audits, monthly checks, quarterly checks, etc. – leaves various departments overburdened and extremely frustrated by it. The decline in quality management after certification is always linked to leaders’ one-sided understanding of quality. The company’s top management must pay close attention to understanding the quality system documents; implementing ISO9001 requires mobilizing a large amount of resources from the enterprise, as well as new intangible resources. It is far too difficult to drive ISO9001 implementation solely through grassroots efforts, due to the lack of management authority and control over corporate resources. 5. Treating quality system management as a \"theoretical\" activity: The position of quality system manager is essentially vacant; tasks are only undertaken when leaders need to deal with quality incidents. Quality system management is viewed narrowly as the role of an incident investigator, or as a position focused solely on handling various minor details. It fails to play any role in standardizing operations through systematic guidance, as there is insufficient authority and adequate compensation for relevant positions; as a result, such systems do not receive proper attention among employees. The measures and methods established for quality system management are not implemented, and employees continue to act according to the orders of their supervisors. 6. Focusing only on results and not on the process: This leadership management approach, which focuses solely on outcomes rather than the steps taken to achieve them, is contrary to the basic principle of quality management systems, which is to \"use process-based methods.\" As a result, when implementing the documents related to quality management systems, people unintentionally fail to keep records or follow the required procedures for quality management, and they resort to providing fake data in order to have evidence. As long as tasks are completed without proper attention, the management quality of the company will inevitably decline over time. Given the long-term nature and continuity of quality management, factories must have a 5-year or 10-year plan that starts with fundamental tasks; by means of policy guidance and appropriate methods, quality concepts are integrated into the actual operations of the organization, and regular inspections are carried out to ensure that employees adhere to the established behavioral standards. 7. Focusing solely on the number of non-conformities identified in quality audits is not sufficient. The requirements for quality system certification are becoming increasingly stringent; non-conformities found during audits should be viewed properly, and it cannot be assumed that a high number of non-conformities or minor issues indicates poor quality management. As a leader, I need to carefully consider what resources I have made available for quality management, and how to use the non-conformities identified during audits to continuously improve the management of the quality system. 8. Inability to communicate effectively during audits: Whether it is second-party or third-party audits, it is common for the auditing agencies to be unable to communicate effectively during these processes. Some of these agencies even act like \"emperors,\" believing that the factories being audited must comply fully with their \"unequal terms\" and are not allowed to raise any objections ； The leaders of the factories under audit also approach the system management requirements with the aim of not offending the auditors. In fact, the purpose of the audit is to identify what the problems and shortcomings in the factory are. Only through communication between both parties and a thorough understanding of these issues can true improvement be achieved. How to ensure the effectiveness of a quality system: 1. Write down what is required, do what has been written, and record what has been done. ”To put these principles into practice, quality system documents (quality manuals, procedure documents) are prepared in order to standardize employees’ work. Whether employees carry out their tasks in accordance with the requirements of these procedure documents is one of the quantitative indicators used to assess their effectiveness. Many certified companies share the same feeling: it’s easy to prepare the documents, but difficult to put them into practice. In fact, it emphasizes systematicness and practicality: “Write what is needed, do what is written, and record what has been done.” ”Using tables to manage quality records will yield excellent results. 2. Self-correction through rolling quality internal audits. Conducting quality internal audits thoroughly is an important aspect of quality system management; it is necessary to ensure that these audits cover every area and level within the company, thereby enabling self-correction. Practice has shown that even if a company obtains quality system certification, various problems still arise in the actual operation of that quality system. Without a mechanism for continuously identifying problems, solving them, and making improvements, various issues will arise that affect the operation of the quality system, gradually making it difficult for the system to function, and ultimately leading to its effective demise. In general, internal audits, based on internal hierarchical structures, usually do not audit management levels, which is actually incorrect. Because the management’s attitude toward quality directly affects employees’ attitude toward quality work. 3. Pay attention to quality costs to satisfy customers. Quality costs are one of the quantitative indicators used to assess the level of quality management; one can imagine what the quality of a company would be like if it fails to achieve efficiency. A company’s quality efforts reflect the principles of quality management—the seven fundamental principles. With the philosophy of \"the customer is king,\" it is necessary to pay attention not only to the quality of the products provided to customers but also to maintaining good relationships with them. Customer satisfaction actually involves a great deal of communication and understanding. In the course of business operations, quality management should be based on the actual conditions of the company; it is not possible to fulfill all of the requirements put forward by customers. For those requirements that exceed the company’s capacity to meet them, such issues should be resolved through communication. 4. A tracking system is implemented for standardized workflow procedures. The quality of products and services is ensured through such standardized procedures; any defective items have their causes identified, and it is possible to pinpoint the responsible persons. Even without imposing penalties, merely exposing such issues can help raise awareness of quality. Recurring defects require focused follow-up and closure, with employees being educated through quality case studies and quality analysis meetings. 5. Management must always demonstrate a high level of wisdom regarding quality. Some employees, even those at the grassroots level, find it difficult to understand why simple tasks need to be broken down into so many steps, or why work instructions are necessary. Does the absence of such instructions mean that we can’t produce high-quality products? Many people also often complain that if everything had to be done this way, we wouldn’t need to do anything at all. Once conflicts arise between the quality control department and the production department, business managers (the leadership) prefer that the products be of acceptable quality, focusing instead on production and sales. So, in many cases, a company’s quality system management is out of necessity. The story of Zhang Ruimin breaking the refrigerator reflects the great wisdom behind him, which helped turn Haier into an international corporation. But when it comes to product quality in reality, there are few cases of products ruining refrigerators, which makes it easy to understand the situation of so many companies. Summary: As an important component of management in the manufacturing industry and across all organizations, quality system management requires continuous attention and authorization from senior management, ongoing improvement efforts from quality professionals, and the involvement of the entire organization in the PDCA cycle for quality improvement. Only in this way can the quality work within an organization be truly improved, and its quality standards raised.