Article by Jack Sekhon
6 Min Read. Updated June 24, 2024
Types Of Quality Management Systems
Understanding the various types of Quality Management Systems (QMS) is essential for organizations aiming to enhance their operational efficiency and ensure consistent quality. Different QMS frameworks cater to diverse industry needs and regulatory requirements, providing structured approaches to quality management. By exploring these types, businesses can identify the most suitable system to align with their goals and achieve excellence in their processes and outcomes.
Types of QMS
A quality management system is a consolidation of policies, procedures, and tools that would collectively enable an organization to determine, deliver, and satisfy customer requirements for the products and the services requested. In addition, a QMS also provides a process for ensuring compliance with applicable statutory & regulatory requirements.
Quality systems can be categorized into the following:
- Standardized Quality System
- Total Quality Management System
- Six Sigma and Lean Quality Management System
- Enterprise Operating System
Standardized Quality System
These systems are standardized across the globe and for the most part, are required through international standards, developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Some of these systems include the following:
- ISO 9001:2015 – Generic standard for QMS that applies to any service or product related industry. This standard has been modified by various sectors specific standards to incorporate requirements for those sectors. Examples include TS 16949 for Automotive Industry and AS 9100 for Aerospace Industry. The other examples include ISO 17025 for Testing Laboratories and ISO 13485 for Medical Devices.
Total Quality Management System
A total quality management system was introduced 20-30 years ago and was embraced by some large organizations. This system was overwhelmingly comprehensive and received a bad reputation due to difficulty in understanding and implementing. Some users called it a massive paper trail without due benefits. This system lost interest of the users after 5 years of being in existence.
Six Sigma and Lean Quality Management System
The six sigma is designed to micromanage sophisticated business sectors which require perfection while managing quality of products and services. Six sigma means that you will allow a maximum of six defective parts from a lot of one million parts. This is based upon the DMAIC principle that includes define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. The lean systems are designed to remove waste from the production/service processes. The lean systems include:
- Process Design and Improvement
- Charting
- Descriptive Statistics
- Probability Distributions
- Process Variations
- Six Sigma Process
- Sampling and Process Control
- Control Charts and Sampling Strategy
- Selecting the Appropriate Control Charts
- Various Types of Charts
- Customer Expectations (Low and High Specification Limits)
- Anticipating Problems and Risk Mitigation
- Hypothesis Testing
- Regression Analysis
- Design of Experiments
Enterprise Operating System
This terminology is new and analogous to management systems. This refers to planning, managing, controlling, and improving operational processes such as sales & marketing, design and development, supply chain, production/service delivery, shipping & receiving, and other support processes such as HR, training, etc.
Are you looking for an Integrated Management System? Make sure you know how IMS streamlines multiple standards like ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001 into one cohesive framework.
Looking to certify your organization's QMS?
Contact JSA Inc. for questions related to your company’s QMS certification. Our proven and successful strategies can help you achieve certification without any delays and hassles. Hire JSA for certification project!
QMS Resources
Courses
- 2 Day QMS Requirements – Instructor Led Online Training Course.
- 3 Day Management System Auditing – Instructor Led Online Training Course.
- 4 Day Leading Management System Audits – Instructor Led Online Training Course.
Related Blogs
- What is ISO 9001? – Learn about ISO 9001 standard, its purpose, benefits, how to implement it, get certified and more.
- Core elements of QMS – Learn about the 10 clauses of a Quality Management System in detail.
- ISO 9001:2015 standard – Learn about ISO 9001 principles, how the structure has changed, risk based thinking and more.
- What is Quality Management Systems? – An easy guide to a Quality Management System – definition of QMS, its benefits, purpose, past of quality and more.
- ISO 9001 Design – Learn about the design process of the ISO 9001.
- What a QMS is not? – Learn what a QMS isn’t.
