Quality Management System Handbook for Product Development Companies

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2007), "Quality Management System Handbook for Product Development Companies", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 282-283. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780710745694

To compete in the global market companies have resorted to improving both effectiveness and efficiency by employing quality management systems. This book by Nanda is structured around a 5‐step Quality Management System (QMS) process. It contains 8 chapters and 6 appendices.

Vivek (Vic) Nanda is a certified ISO 9000 Lead Auditor among other things. He has extensive experience in the software industry and has led the successful implementation of QMS process in a number of companies and authored several articles and has presented at numerous international conferences.

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the concept of quality and the thoughts of quality gurus such as Deming, Juran and Crosby, and briefly explains the four components of quality management: planning, control, assurance, and improvement. The chapter concludes with an overview of what is to follow.

Chapters 2 and 3 describe the planning phase of the QMS process for successful implementation. Chapter 2 focuses implementation planning aspects such as management commitment, setting specific goals, allocating resources and specifying time frames for implementation, tracking and controlling. Chapter 3 is devoted to QMS documentation planning: setting strategy using top‐down approach, managing and controlling documentation, and the documentation process itself.

The QMS definition phase is covered in the next two chapters. The focus is on defining, verifying, and validating individual elements of the QMS. Chapter 4 describes how to determine the current situation and conduct a gap analysis against a QMS standard, and how to map and define the organisational processes in a top‐down fashion to satisfy requirements of both internal stakeholders and external auditors. Chapter 5 is a brief introduction to quality practices, which are relevant to different functional areas (finance, sales, marketing, human resources, etc) in product development companies.

Chapter 6 is a very short one (5 pages) on refining the complete QMS to ensure that all QMS requirements have been adequately addressed. The need for independent review by two or more personnel is emphasised.

The final two chapters respectively cover the deployment and improvement phases. Chapter 7 describes means of promoting and verifying deployment of the newly established QMS using 3 steps: employee training, monitoring process adherence in real time, and a rigorous internal quality audit programme. The never‐ending process of continuous improvement of the QMS system is described in the final chapter.

The book concludes with 6 appendices that provide several practical examples of QMS documentation: sample outlines of a project plan for QMS implementation, a quality manual, quality procedures, forms and templates, and training material and an example of an audit check list.