ISO 9001:2015 A Pocket Guide

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 ...