Clause 5.4.2 Quality management system planning

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first."

Chanakya (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

How is Quality achieved?

Once the customer's requirements are known, it is important to plan the activities necessary to deliver the desired product and/or service, to achieve the quality objectives, and to ensure continual improvement. This includes identifying activities necessary to deliver the product and/or service, necessary resources, verification activities (such as inspections) criteria for acceptability of product and/or service, and the records to be established in the process.

Planning does not have to be a sophisticated process. Examples of documenting planning activities are:

• the quality manual and associated procedures;
• work orders;
• production plans.
• A simple excel sheet given planned dates, actual completion dates of activities planned and wherever necessary explanation of why the activity is delayed could be sufficient

Planning should be consistent with the complexity of the organization. For example, a small organization with routine processes can choose to document their planning activities in a set of simple procedures. A larger organization with customized products and/or services will need to document how quality will be achieved for each customized order in work orders.

Planning should not only apply to delivering the required product and/or service and achieving quality objectives, but also to organizational change. Changes in an organization should be planned in order to minimize the risk of negative effects on quality of product and/or service.

Objectives of quality planning are to ensure that changes are controlled, integrity of the system is maintained during these changes and adequate resources are available.

When a document, a procedure or a work instruction, is revised, it is intended that organization will decide the appropriate implementation date and impart sufficient skill and knowledge to persons concern. This ensures that the revised procedure is implemented at all locations at the same time. If it is not possible to implement a new document, a procedure or a work instruction, then the organization can plan its implementation schedule and implement it according to its own needs. There is no restriction within the standard in this respect and hence organizations can plan its activities according to its own business process requirements.

Integrity of quality management system should be maintained during implementation of changes.