The 8 Principles of Quality

1. Customer Focus

   • Companies depend on customers therefore need to understand current and future customer needs.
   • Ensuring company objectives are in line with customer needs and expectations
   • Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the company
   • Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on results
   • Systematically managing customer relationships

2. Leadership

   • Leaders establish an internal environment where people can become fully involved in achieving the company’s objectives
   • Considering the needs of all interested parties i.e. customers, suppliers, employees etc.
   • Setting challenging goals and targets
   • Providing people with resources and training
   • Inspiring, encouraging and recognising peoples contributions

3. Involvement of People

   • People are the basis of a company and their abilities should be used for the company’s benefit
   • People understanding the contribution of their role in the company
   • People identifying constraints on their performance
   • People evaluating their performance against goals and objectives
   • People openly discussing problems and issues

4. Process Approach

   • Desired results are achieved when activities and related resources are managed as a process
   • Defining the activities to obtain a desired result
   • Establishing responsibilities and accountability for managing key activities
   • Focussing on factors such as resources, methods and materials to improve key activities at the company
   • Evaluating risks, consequences and impacts on customers, suppliers and other interested parties

5. System Approach to Management

   • Understanding and managing inter-related processes as a system contributes to the company’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives
   • Structuring the system to achieve the company’s objectives in the most efficient way
   • Understanding the interdependencies between the processes of the system
   • Continually improving the system through measurement and evaluation

6. Continual Improvement

   • Continual improvement of the company’s overall performance should be a permanent objective
   • Employing a consistent companywide approach to continual improvement of the company’s performance
   • Establishing measures to track continual improvement
   • Recognising and acknowledging improvement

7. Factual Approach to decision Making

   • Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information
   • Ensuring that data and information are sufficiently accurate and reliable

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

   • The company and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability to create value
   • Identifying and selecting key suppliers