Quality Objectives are Business Objectives

Are you having a difficult time identifying quality objectives for your organization? Think about your business.

According to ISO 9000:2005, 3.2.5, a quality objective is something sought or aimed for, related to quality. ISO 9001:2000, 5.4.1, states your quality objectives must be measurable and consistent with the quality policy.

Clause 5.3 of ISO 9001:2000 says your quality policy is a framework for establishing quality objectives. It also says that the policy must include a commitment to 1) comply with requirements and 2) continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system. Using the quality policy as a framework, you would have a quality objective to measure the degree to which requirements are being met, as well as, a quality objective that measures the results of the quality management system.

If your quality policy identifies other important areas, for example, product reliability, you would be expected to have another measurable target for product reliability. ISO 9001:2000, clause 8.2.1, says a required performance measure is for customer satisfaction.

Remember, goals are conditions to be achieved in the future. They should be defined consistent with your vision and mission. Goals are established to guide your decisions and actions. They don't change as much as objectives. Your objectives must involve measurable results to achieve your goals.

Objectives are focused on critical issues and milestones. They describe the activities and targets to achieve your goals. They even identify the dates for completing the activities. They are measurable in terms of being achieved, or not. For example, a general goal might be to reduce waste. The related, specific objective might be to reduce rework from 10% to 5% by the end of 2008.

Depending on your industry, you might consider quality objectives such as:

Scrap Rate = Product Rejects / Products Produced
Return Rate = Products Returned / Products Shipped
Complaint Rate = Received Complaints /Total Customers
Customer Satisfaction Index = (Questions x Ratings) /Surveys Returned
On-time Delivery = Deliveries by Due Date / Deliveries Scheduled
Design Stability = Change Requests / Product Releases
Service Quality = Defective Transactions / Total Transactions
Requirements Traceability = Traceable to Design / Total Requirements

Some of these metrics would be expressed over a period of time, e.g., complaints per customer per year. And, some values may be multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. Also, the objectives don't have to be variable measures. You could include installation of a new MRP System by the end of 2008 as an objective.

Be careful how you set these objectives and how you communicate them. You might find people actually manipulating processes to achieve the desired results, especially if the numbers are used to evaluate employee performance. When handled poorly, performance targets can result in internal competition and a lack of cooperation. In fact, a specific process objective can be optimized at the expense of overall system performance.

If a target is perceived as arbitrary, and set beyond the capability of the process, it may lead to employee frustration, reduced morale, and even lower performance. Individuals must feel they have some control over the outcome for an objective to actually promote improvement. The objectives should help monitor and control the processes, not the people.

Have a Business / Strategic Plan? These objectives should be based on comprehensive strategic planning. You should define measures to help identify needed process improvements and to grow your business.