In the manufacturing industry, you may find that the quality of your products can vary substantially.
You might struggle to find a system that achieves consistent production processes and high customer satisfaction for minimal expenditure, and this can result in the development of your company lagging behind the competition.
But by investing in quality management training, you can better optimise your processes - thereby improving profits and helping your business to grow quicker and more efficiently.
What Is Quality Management Training?
Quality management training upskills your employees by coaching them to use quality management systems to analyse and improve manufacturing at each stage of the production process. This helps to accurately identify and overcome challenges during production, and assists in structuring the organisation in a way that ensures maximum efficiency.
In particular, Quality Management Systems (QMS) may be useful for implementing standards of accordance when manufacturing goods on behalf of a client, as they will help to ensure consistent and professional results, which can be measured and controlled for analysis.
Why Is QMS Training Important?
QMS systems allow businesses to identify and overcome problems with their production processes in the most efficient manner. All manufacturing businesses, whether large corporations or SMEs, should have a quality management system in place at every stage of the production process to achieve production and quality improvement targets.
An effective QMS will aid several business functions, such as enabling more rigorous process controls, waste reduction, reduced costs, better motivated and well-trained staff, and increased customer satisfaction.
Having an effective QMS system in place is also essential if you want to become eligible for certain larger contracts that are put up for tender.
Here, the vendor will want to know that the company they contract to complete the work will be able to deliver what is promised. This is why most vendors will request that any contractors who bid for the work have an official certification or accreditation awarded to their business – most of which will only be granted to companies who have a functional QMS system in operation.
Achieving Results Using QMS Training
Undergoing quality management training helps to improve the quality of your product or service by empowering employees to use QMS systems to achieve more efficient processes and structures within their organisation.
This results in several key benefits for the business:
• Optimised Processes
Poor product consistency can negatively affect customers five times more than the delivery of a poor quality product. Using a QMS allows your organisation to identify standard operating practices (SOPs) and standardised quality checks that all employees can follow to achieve maximum efficiency and quality control.
This ensures that this process can be implemented more effectively, and that all employees know what is required of them to achieve consistent results across the board.
Using a QMS system also enables your organisation to use evidence-based decision-making skills to make changes, and then accurately analyse the effects.
• Efficient Management
To certify for QMS training, all employees have to follow strict guidelines. This makes employees’ results easier to regulate within the organisation and implements a more effective structure for training and management.
All of which helps to reduce financial losses and improve time management.
• Motivated Staff
QMS training keeps staff motivated by defining job roles and improving understanding of the responsibilities and guidelines involved to ensure better staff compliance. It also keeps management accountable for the results of their department and helps to establish routine training systems to help keep organisational processes up to date.
This helps to ensure quality results, and keeps staff morale high, resulting in improved staff retention, and lower turnover rates. This helps to save time and money when training employees.
The ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard guidelines also play a crucial role in establishing effective communications between staff and management.
The guidance states that ‘top management shall ensure that appropriate communication processes are established within the organisation and that communication takes place regarding the effectiveness of the Quality Management System’.
This helps to regulate interactions between management and staff, and reduces the chance of any miscommunications developing that can cause difficulties within the organisation.
In turn, this helps to build a culture of collaboration where employees are empowered to feedback their experiences.
• Better Value For Money
Implementing a rigorous QMS system can benefit return on investment (ROI) by up to 300%, and 65% of organisations who put in place a formal QMS system save $25,000 within just one year.
QMS systems can ensure better value for money by increasing efficiency, reducing financial and time losses, cutting the cost of creating quality products and services through improved processes, lowering employee turnover, and improving public perceptions – all of which are factors that lead to higher sales revenue.
Implementing QMS In Your Business
To get the best from your QMS system, you should implement your new QMS using the following steps:
• Break down your process into steps, considering which points are essential to customer satisfaction. Delegate responsibility to senior members of staff to identify the requirements of your company, and structure your Quality Management System around these points.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing processes with your staff and do a gap analysis to identify necessary changes. You can then use this to formulate your plan for implementing your new QMS and making the necessary changes.
• Edit your QMS and take out any irrelevant information or steps. Your QMS is then ready for training staff.
• Put your QMS system in place and begin a ‘trial period’. This should be overseen by a senior member of staff, and your company should undertake regular checks and controls to ensure that the system is running as efficiently as possible.
Results should then be compared against targets to test whether key priorities are being met.
• Take note of any operational issues and use this to review your process as necessary. Routine audits should be carried out to monitor compliance with certification requirements, organisational policy and procedure. Review at regular intervals to ensure continuous improvement.
The Next Steps
When you feel that your QMS system is sufficiently optimised, your business may decide to apply for ISO 9001 certification.
As discussed, being awarded this certification will make your company eligible to bid on larger and more lucrative contracts, thereby giving you the chance to grow your business and secure bigger projects to work on.
Ensure your product gets tested by experienced QA engineers with QASource – an award winning quality assurance company.
To reap the benefits of top of the line QA solutions, get in touch with us at https://www.qasource.com/
