A quality system comprises all of the activities that are undertaken to assure that a product or service meets the required standards. The fact is that most Russian industrial organizations is assembling a devices according standard parts and specific brands. These parts are assembled according to an established process. The product is checked, during assembling, to assure quality. Finally, many devices perform a final inspection before releasing it from the industrial organization.
All of these steps are elements of a quality system, and are repeated in all manufacturing and service businesses. The main elements of a quality system are: raw material purchasing and control; incoming inspection of raw materials; process control; final inspection; management responsibility; control of nonconforming product; records.
Formal systems are generally not required in craftsman endeavors. Craftsman manufacturing involves individuals or very small group who establish their own standards, perform their own work, and verify (or guarantee) the quality.
The actual definition of a quality system from ISO Standards is: "Quality System: The organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures, processes, and resources for implementing quality management" [1].
Feigenbaum [2] provides a better definition: A quality system is the agreed on, company-wide and plant-wide operations work structure, documented in effective, integrated technical and managerial procedures, for guiding the coordinated actions of the people, the machines and the information of the company and plant in the best and most practical ways to assure customer quality satisfaction and economical costs of quality.
The keys to a proper quality system, then, are: company-wide and plant-wide agreement; provides operating work structure; documents an effective integration of technical and managerial procedures; guides the coordinated actions of the people, the machines and the information of the company and plant; assures customer quality satisfaction and economical costs of quality.
Formal quality systems consist of documented procedures to instruct and inform the people involved on how management wants the customers satisfied. These instructions start at the Quality Policy, established by management, and then are implemented through the management system to assure customer satisfaction.
References:
- American National standard, ANSI/ASQ Q90-1987, pg. 2, American Society for Quality, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203.
- Feigenbaum, A.V., Total Quality Control McGraw-Hill, new York, N.Y., Third Edition, pg. 14.