Issue 5 – Element 5.0: Leadership
ISO 9001:2015…
Element 5.0 – Leadership
What’s new in Element 5.0?… Before I dive in, I promised in my last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 4), where I discussed Strategic Planning and a tool called a SWOT Matrix, that I would provide you with an actual example of a SWOT Matrix filled out, based on a sampling from my Client sessions over the years.
Here is an Example of how this tool is used…
(Feel free to download it… just click on the image below and a dialogue box should open up in order to save this as a MS Word file)
NOTE: The final official version of ISO 9001:2015 was published on September 22, 2015! As predicted only very minor word changes were made to the FDIS version issued back on July 9th. Also of note is that ISO 14001:2015 was also officially released in September!
The new Clause numbering…
Section 4 – Context of the organization
Section 5 – Leadership
Section 6 – Planning
Section 7 – Support
Section 8 – Operation
Section 9 – Performance evaluation
Section 10 – Improvement
Element 5.0 Leadership consists of three (3) Clauses as listed below:
5.1 Leadership and Commitment
5.2 Policy
5.3 Organizational Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities
Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment: This Clause contains two sub-clauses, namely 5.1.1 General and 5.1.2 Customer Focus. Clause 5.1 represents a doubling of the “shall” requirements from the 2008 version, and it now uses the term “Leadership” versus “Management Responsibility”. This change sends a strong signal that top management shouldn’t have to be dragged along but rather they should be “leading” the charge towards “quality”. The new requirements in Clause 5.1 use words such as:
“accountability for the QMS”…
“compatibility with strategic direction”…
“integration of QMS into the business”…
“promoting risk-based thinking”…
“ensuring the QMS achieves its intended results”…
“ability to enhance customer satisfaction is determined and addressed”…
These phrases have more bite to them than what we saw in the 2008 version, and will require a different (& longer) conversation with top management in order to address them.
Clause 5.2 Policy: This Clause contains two sub-clauses, namely 5.2.1 Establishing the Quality Policy and 5.2.2 Communicating the Quality Policy. Clause 5.2 basically has double the number of “shall” requirements. One new requirement deals with ensuring the Quality Policy “is appropriate to the … context of the organization and supports its strategic direction”. Another extra requirement concerns the Quality Policy being “applied within the organization”, and a somewhat significant change is that the Quality Policy “be available to relevant interested parties”.
Clause 5.3 Organizational Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities: This Clause contains no sub-clauses, and essentially has a similar number of “shall” requirements. Two key differences from the 2008 version include that the topic of “Internal Communication” has been pulled out and moved to another area (Clause 7.4… and it is much more prescriptive); and that the specific role of Management Representative has been eliminated. That last change has been handled by distributing various responsibilities amongst top management. Other changes to the responsibilities of top management include phrases such as:
“roles and responsibilities are… understood within the organization”…
“ensuring that the quality management system conforms to the requirements of this International Standard“…
“ensuring that the processes are delivering their intended outputs“…
“reporting on the performance … and on opportunities for improvement, in particular to top management“…
“ensuring that the integrity of the quality management system is maintained”…
Make sure to watch for our next Newsletter issue where we will cover another section of ISO 9001:2015…
PS: Don’t forget to look at the Q&A section below for some final thoughts…
PPS: For my Newsletter readers in the Toronto, Canada area, I will be giving a presentation at the ASQ Toronto Meeting on Oct 14th in case you are interested… click here for more details: ASQ Toronto Meeting – Oct 14/2015
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Q: Since ISO 9001:2015 no longer requires a QMS “Management Representative”, should we eliminate that role?
A: It depends on how committed your top management is to “Quality”. If they truly are, then distributing the role of “Management Representative” should not be an issue, and in fact sends a message that “Quality” is everyone’s responsibility. On the other hand your QMS could erode over time if no one is specifically identified and assigned to look after it. I’d recommend that the role of “Management Representative” be maintained but that it become a rotating responsibility amongst the top management team members, and that it is re-assigned every two years max. This provides a few advantages, such as: a) it satisfies the intent of this new ISO Standard of distributing QMS responsibilities; b) it recognizes that everyone shares the commitment to “Quality” within the organization; and c) every member of top management eventually gains a much better appreciation of all that is involved in maintaining a QMS.
Until next time…
Tim Renaud
Helping Business Professionals Reduce Risk and Remove Waste!