G l o s s a r y o f T e r m s

Q U A L I T Y

Customer Focus:
Customer focus is concerned with ‘Top management’ having complete understanding of
customers’ requirements at a strategic level in order for them to be able to know and
understand when the customer is satisfied and if the organisation has met the customers’
requirements. The information from the customers should be used by the ‘Top management
M A N A G E M E N T

to set policies and objectives.

Policies:
Policies are what an organisation should agree and make known so that all in the
organisation have a clear understanding of the policies and how they are a part of achieving
those policies. Although ISO 9001:2000 asks for a Quality Policy, as long as the requirements
of the clause are met other polices for the organisation can be incorporated so that quality is
S Y S T E M S

not seen as an activity that is exclusive.

Objectives:
Once the policies have been set then objectives will need to be put together to ensure that the
policies are actually achieved. Again, top management will be responsible for putting the
quality objectives together and making sure that they are applicable to the relevant functions
and levels within the organisation. These objectives are notoriously difficult to set but using the
SMART principle i.e. S – Specification, M – Measurable, A – Agreed, R- Realistic and T – Timely.
Then the organisation may be able to set reasonable objectives to ensure policies are achieved.

Planning:
It’s one thing having objectives set, but making sure they are achieved is something else.
Through the careful planning of the objectives and how they are to be achieved and more
importantly when, then the chances of achieving them is much greater.

Outsourcing:
Outsourcing should be seen as an activity that is similar to that of sub-contracting. When a
major activity of the operations of an organisation to meet customers’ requirements is
‘outsourced’ then the organisation should have adequate control over the supplier (sub-
contractor) to give them confidence that the activity will be acceptable to the organisation
and ultimately the customer.
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 G l o s s a r y o f T e r m s
Q U A L I T Y

Competence:
Competencies are all about the skills needed to do a particular job. Organisations should
have the competencies agreed for each task or activity and those staff carrying out that
activity should meet those competencies. If they don’t then they should have their skills
enhanced by training or other methods.
M A N A G E M E N T

Work Environment:
It is worth looking at the definition in ISO 9000:2000 (3.3.4). The note gives some indication as
to the types of environment that could effect the product or service provided to the customer.
It is also worth looking at clause 6.4 in ISO 9004:2000, as this provides a good insight into
what an organisation may need to consider. As the clause in ISO 9001 states; there should be
an environment that ensures the product/services meets customer requirements.
S Y S T E M S

Customer Communication:
Communications with the customer are vital to ensure that there are no misunderstandings
and that the customer receives what has been agreed. There are many different ways of
communicating with the customer depending on the type of product involved. The
organisation should review the information given to customers on a regular basis to ensure
that the correct information is given and to ensure that problems do not arise. How the
organisation communicates is upto them, provided the communication is effective.

Evaluation:
If an organisation works to the spirit of ISO 9001:2000 then they will have a lot of information
that will need evaluating. It will be from an appraisal of this information through evaluations
that decisions will be able to be made on where improvements can be made.

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