ISO 9001 in 90 Minutes – Clause 5 Leadership
Clause 5 Leadership
Hi and welcome to ISO 9001 in 90 minutes in this series we’re going to be looking at clause 5 entitled leadership
ISO 9001 Clause 5.1 is about leadership commitment:
The leadership of the business needs to demonstrate commitment, take accountability and responsibility for the performance of the quality management system. They do this by setting the direction of the organization objectives and then also periodically reviewing performance.
Leadership also needs to make sure that the quality management system is integrated into the business processes and need to communicate the importance of quality management
Leadership commitment is also demonstrated by providing suitable resources, engaging with those resources, directing, and supporting them as required.
Leadership also needs to promote risk-based thinking and the process-based approach. Risk-based thinking is an understanding of how risks and opportunities apply to your product and service range, also the process-based approach is where leadership needs to focus on ensuring that there is a seamless integration of all the various business processes to reduce time and waste
Leadership also demonstrates a commitment by promoting continual improvement where issues are identified root or contributing factors are identified and addressed to ensure that your products and services improve.
ISO 9001 Clause 5.1.2 is all about customer focus:
Leadership needs to ensure that the business and its processes are focused on the customer.
- We do that by identifying your product or service, customer and legal or other requirements. If your products or services don’t meet compliance requirements, they worn sold.
- Ensuring that risks associated with your products and services are appropriately managed during the manufacturing, installation and use of those products or services and
- Those opportunities to improve your products or services are leveraged to improve customer satisfaction.
- Every effort is made to focus on how the customer needs, perceptions, and customer experience can be improved through your entire life cycle of engaging with the customer
ISO 9001 Clause 5.2 the Quality Policy
Top management makes commitments in the quality policy:
- To satisfy applicable requirements, those requirements could be customer requirements, they could be your own internal business requirements they could be statutory and regulatory requirements to name but a few
- Top management needs to commit to the continual improvement of the quality management system
- The policy must be relevant and appropriate to the organization, aligned with the organization strategic direction, create a framework for setting quality objectives, it must be documented, communicated and available.
ISO 9001 Clause 5.3 organizational roles and responsibilities
Leadership assigns responsibility to ensure the quality management system conforms to the ISO 9001 standard. Leadership must designate people to report on the quality management system performance, that it is delivering on its intended outcomes.
Some of the tools that can be used for the designation of responsibilities and authorities are Organograms, job descriptions, letters of appointment, policies procedures and work instructions.
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SRM is ISO 9001: 2015: ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 certified. Let us know if we can help you with the development and implementation of your Quality Management System. Contact our consultants today
Watch this video as our MD – Nicholas Graham, provides a visual overview of ISO 9001;2015 Clause 5
Associated Posts:
https://srmc.co.za/iso-9001-in-90-minutes-series-1-clause-4-context-of-the-organisation/
