Establishing Quality Policy

Now the next step in developing your Quality Management System ( Steps for implementing Quality Management System) is to establish a Quality Policy. What is a Quality Policy?


As per ISO 9001:2008 Clause 5.3, the top management shall ensure that the Quality Policy 


a) is appropriate to the purpose of the organization,
b) includes a commitment to comply with the requirements and continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system,
c) provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives,
d) is communicated and understood within the organization, and 
e) is reviewed for continuing suitability


So how do you frame a Quality Policy for your organisation?


Let us look at an example which can be used for your organization too:

We at (COMPANY NAME) are committed to :

- produce, distribute and market high quality products that meet customer requirements

- establishing quality objectives at relevant departments and exceed those objectives

- continuously develop the Quality Management System as part of our improvement activities

- abide by all local and international statutory and regulatory requirements

This is a very simple example. The Quality Policy should focus on the business aspect of the industry of the organization as much as possible along with other criteria as addressed by the standard.

MR has to ensure that the Quality Policy is communicated (emails, notice boards,etc.) to every one in the organization. 

During an audit every employee should be able to at least point out a correspondence regarding the Quality Policy being communicated. It is better advisable to have the Quality Policy displayed in each department / office.

Evidence of the Quality Policy being subject to review should be recorded in the management review meetings.

More samples of Quality Policy can be found here (Quality Policy Examples) . For more details you can email me at grahak.thecustomer@gmail.com