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ISO 9001:2008 section 5
5. Management Responsibility
Section 5 is split into 6 sub sections of management requirements;
5.1. Management commitment
5.2. Customer focus
5.3. Quality policy
5.4. Planning
5.5. Responsibility, authority and communications
5.6. Management review
This section is clearly aimed at top management, and indeed you will notice that each of the six sub sections, start with the statement "Top management shall...".
When looking at the sequence 5.1 to 5.6 it could be deduced that there is a logical series of events to follow;
Commitment of top management (e.g. 5.1) needs to be evident in any organization in today's cut-throat business markets, this commitment should be the drive required to deliver a quality product and or service that the customer expects (e.g. 5.2). In meeting this vision the organization should define it's commitment to it's customers within a quality policy i.e. a mission statement, which should be endorsed at the highest level, usually the CEO or MD (e.g. 5.3). To allow the organisation to meet their quality policy commitments it will be necessary to plan (e.g. 5.4), normally involving a series of objectives stretched across various functions throughout the organization all aimed at allowing customer's expectations to be met. These objectives should be measurable and consistent in meeting the organizations vision. Organizations will need to distribute responsibilities and authority, and these will need to be clearly communicated and understood (e.g. 5.5).
Responsibility is a duty or obligation, whereas authority is the power to carry out these obligations. For the organization to be effective and efficient these key management areas must be managed in order to implement the visions of top management as defined within the quality policy and objectives, again relating back to meeting it's customers expectations. Finally the organization should review (e.g. 5.6) it's results against it's quality policy and objectives to ensure they are still suitable in meeting it's vision and customer requirements.
Top management have day in day out missions, these confirming the direction which they intent to steer the organization in the current markets to continued efforts to meet customer requirements. Visions on the other hand are where top management wish to steer the organization in the years ahead, for example, best in class, number one, league leaders, break into new international markets.
Top management need to strive to create an environment whereby the involvement of all functions is fully conducive to the intent of the quality management system. Each process, whether management, production or ancillary, needs to support its internal and external customers. Top management must always endeavour to ensure these processes operate efficiently and effectively, it takes but one small cog to slip, and the whole engine will miss fire.
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