Quality Objectives – part 2

The very first question that should be asked is; do you want to include quality objectives in the general objectives of the organisation.  There are no rules around this.  Just choose one or the other and change it if it doesn’t work.  There are some quite specific requirements from the standard and if you don’t want to include such requirements around companywide objectives, then perhaps best to leave it at this stage so as not to jeopardise your certification program.  I personally keep them separate in the initial stages of a project so that the machinations have some focus.  Once people are used to the objectives process, adopting others become less stressful.  For those companies who have fully blown strategic and business plans that have already identified quality objectives, perhaps a simple overlay to ensure corrective structure and reporting is the best strategy.  For my company, quality is a single objective within the strategic plan, which are then split into key attributes and managed operationally on an ongoing basis.  Simple?  Perhaps but we shall explore the machinations next blog for your own determination.