Scope of QMS

Can you folks give me an example of your QMS scope or quality policy. I want to make sure that when we create our quality policy and scope of QMS we are putting in adequate information without putting in unnecessary information.
Thanks,

 

Reno Cerakote is the largest Cerakote and Hydrographic film applicator in the united states, we supply and environmentally friendly Ceramic Coating (cerakote). We operate a mass production coating facility. Generally coat firearms but have picked up Contracts with other high dollar Eye wear companies and also some Handheld multitools (i dont think i can discuss other company names).

 

Quality Policy and Objectives,

RCH, through effective use of our continuously improving Quality Management System, is committed to provide the quality products and services that meet the needs, expectations, and requirements of all our customers at a fair price.

Continuously improve the QMS through employee involvement and process improvement

Provide quality products and service that meet all of our customer requirements, needs, and expectations at a fair price.


This is the quality policy and objectives i had come up with previously. My production manager asked me to remove "at a fair price"

 

Typically, quality policy and quality objectives are documented separately. The examples given by Andy and you as a company's quality policy will then be supported by measurable quality objectives. These are usually established by functions (or departments) within the organization.

 

Dear All,

Our organization is also planning to get an ISO 9001:2015 certification. I am the one in charge of this activity, and there are some challenges I am facing. I hope you guys can shed light on this confusion I have.

1. Is the QMS scope the same as the certification scope?
2. The management wants only a specific department in our organization to be ISO 9001:2015 certified. (The reason behind this is the cost of certification and they wanted to really make sure that the Operations department has a proper QMS in placed) The idea they are pushing is, we will treat the Operations Department as a service unit of the organization and its customers are the internal staff of the organization and other outside stakeholders the Operations department is serving. My question is, is this actually possible to certify one department of an organization? Is it also acceptable to treat the internal staff as the customer of the certification?
3. Which Certifying body should you recommend for Non-Government Organizations seeking for this certification? We are based in North East Nigeria.

I will really appreciate your comments on this.

Thank you,
Dena

 

Certification scope is based on the QMS scope. Although most organizations QMS scope are the same with their certification scope, there are organizations with broader QMS scope than their certification scope. Example: 3M QMS scope may cover all their products but they can choose to acquire certification for their "scotch tape" product only. This is allowed since the scotch tape product has its own set of customers. But their certificate must clearly specify what is only covered. They can't claim that the entire QMS with all their products is certified.

Typically, for most organizations, certification is a "business strategy" intended to attract buyers. You need to establish first the organization's product, who wants your product (i.e. your market), their needs/expectations and context before establishing what would be the certification scope. The certification scope will also specify "the organization" that is certified. In your case, the organization will be the "Operations Department of XXX Company". Since your target customer is the internal staff, you will be prohibited to advertise your certification to the buyers of the product. It's a misrepresentation of the certificate.

 

I believe both point of views about quality objectives set to support the quality policy (in the context of this thread) are not really in a collision course.

Andy says: "What you posted are not requirements, pure and simple".
Yukon says: "What I have stated will be expected".​

Both statements are not mandatory.

Even the guidelines for the application of ISO 9001:2015 (i.e. ISO/TS 9002:2016) employ recommendatory words such as:

In section 5.2.1: "the established quality policy should... b) provide a framework for setting objectives (which means any claims in the quality policy should be measurable)"
In section 6.2.1: "the quality objectives should... a) be consistent with the quality policy, i.e. when establishing the quality objectives, the organization needs to use the quality policy as an input; for example, if the organization has a statement in its quality policy to exceed its customer expectations, then it could have a quality objective that relates to on‐time delivery or customer complaints"​