CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

Although it would be simple to describe a quality management system (QMS) as a system for managing quality, that’s not a useful definition (and would be justly rejected by any dictionary). More usefully, a QMS is a set of interacting policies, objectives and processes designed to make sure that quality requirements for products and services are met.1 These requirements can be set either internally (the organisation’s criteria) or externally (customers’, and others’, requirements). Crucially, it should be seen as including an organisational structure – including appropriate authorities, responsibilities and accountabilities, along with the required competences for each – rather than a set of simple ...

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