ISO 9001:2015 – Newsletter – Issue 86

Issue 86 – QMS Management Rep, do we still need one?

ISO 9001:2015…

QMS Management Rep, do we still need one?

Receiving emails with questions and/or comments from readers of this Newsletter is much appreciated… please continue to do so since it provides me with ideas on what these publications should cover.  In my last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 85) we discussed the topic of  “Management Review, is there a better way to handle it?”, and now in this Newsletter we will discuss “QMS Management Rep, do we still need one?“.

The ISO 9001 Element numbering…

Element 4 – Context of the organization
Element 5 – Leadership
Element 6 – Planning
Element 7 – Support
Element 8 – Operation
Element 9 – Performance evaluation
Element 10 – Improvement

Clause 5.3  Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities

Top management shall ensure that the responsibilities and authorities for relevant roles are assigned, communicated and understood within the organization.
Top management shall assign the responsibility and authority for:
a) ensuring that the quality management system conforms to the requirements of this International Standard;
b) ensuring that the processes are delivering their intended outputs;
c) reporting on the performance of the quality management system and on opportunities for improvement (see 10.1), in particular to top management;
d) ensuring the promotion of customer focus throughout the organization;
e) ensuring that the integrity of the quality management system is maintained when changes to the quality management system are planned and implemented.

The 2015 revision to the ISO 9001 Standard removed the Clause that specifically referenced the role of QMS Management Rep (see the previous version… ISO 9001:2008, Clause 5.5.2 Management Representative).   In their wisdom they replaced it with Clause 5.3 shown above, which essentially covers the same territory without specifically identifying this role.  Unfortunately, like many other areas, they have watered down the requirements by generally delegating responsibilities for the QMS to whomever top management deems appropriate.  When responsibilities are “vaguely assigned” you end up with “vague accountabilities” (for maintaining the QMS).  Similar to my recommendation to my Clients to retain the Quality Manual (which is also no longer an ISO 9001 requirement), I have also recommended they keep the role of QMS Management Rep.  Without a focal point for QMS responsibilities, the probability increases for the QMS to slowly fade away, and possibly the “Quality” of your products and services as well.

What are the typical responsibilities of a QMS Management Rep?  Let’s begin answering this question by looking at what needs to be taken care of within the QMS that probably no one else has in their job description.  One area that immediately comes to mind is managing QMS audits, both internal and external.  Someone needs to coordinate the annual visits by the external ISO Registrar/Certification Body to make sure that the organization is both aware of their arrival and to arrange interviews with various people in the company (including all of the Managers/Supervisors).  This is an important event which is followed by another significant activity, namely scheduling and conducting internal audits, which also needs to be handled at least on an annual basis.  Internal Audits should always be the more comprehensive and intense assessment of your Quality Management System as opposed to the 30,000 foot flyover that is done during the external audit.  This means that someone needs to pull together a pool of employees who will need to be trained/instructed on how to perform an audit of their company processes, and then to report back on their audit findings.  This can be a challenging and often frustrating task which is why I have been kept busy for the past 28 years helping the QMS Management Rep get this job done.

What else do they do?  Lots… sometimes they also have to handle administering the Nonconformance and Corrective Action systems/databases, ensuring that problems are being logged correctly and then processed through to closure.  This likely also includes managing the whole Customer Complaint process, from receipt to resolution.  If that wasn’t enough, they are usually also tasked with facilitating the Management Review meetings, getting them scheduled (and re-scheduled!), pulling together all the data needed for these reviews, chairing these meetings,  sometimes doing most of the talking, and then finally capturing what was discussed within the meeting minutes.  Oh yes, another responsibility can sometimes fall into their lap… keeping all of the QMS documents current, from triggering reviews of existing docs to processing document changes/revisions.  By the way, in many cases this is only a part-time job for many QMS Management Reps, because they usually carry another main job title like Quality Manager or Operations Manager or Office Manager.  One final thought… I recommend that an agenda item be inserted into the Management Review Meetings entitled something like “Confirmation of the Role of the QMS Management Rep”.  This at least allows a chance for the current QMS Management Rep to pass this job onto another Management Team Member since anyone can be appointed to this role… What about a max 2-year term and then the role has to be rotated to another management person?… That’s one way to make “Quality” a shared responsibility!