The Development of a Quality Management System for a Service and Manufacturing Organization

Abstract

South African Organizations are constantly searching for a perfect tool that may help them to effectively manage every aspect of their operations. While the search for this tool has proved to be fruitless for many organizations, various models have been implemented to ensure that organizations have control over their processes. However the consistency of good quality products and services still remain uncertain. The willingness of organizations wishing to choose a tool that ensures processes are in control with consistent products and services that ultimately fulfill customer requirements is a risk that currently faces South Africa. The ISO 9001:2008 Standard and the implementation of a Quality Management System has become the certification of assurance for organizations. The question however arises to whether Quality Management System has an effect on the organization processes and customer satisfaction? The Study considers two Organizations. A tangible product based Organization in the Civil Engineering field building roads and buildings (KPMMM Construction) and a more less tangible service based organization, specializing in Project Management (ISF Services). The study of understanding the current process controls and client satisfaction and whether the development and implementation of a Quality Management System is the solution for organizations to have greater control over their processes and in turn a more gratified client. The ISO 9001:2008 standard describes the basic activities that are required for a quality focused organization in developing and implementing a system to ensure product and service that satisfy customer needs and expectations. The requirements of the standard are such that they affect everyone in the organization. It has been identified from previous sources as mentioned by Anand, K. B.,based QMS of manufacturing environment. Paper presented at the 2012 International Conference on Communication, Information & Computing Technology (ICCICT), Mumbai, India and by and Chi-Hsiang, W., & Dwen-Ren, T. (2009). Integrated installation of ISO 9000 and ISO 27000 management systems in an organization. Paper presented at the 43rd Annual 2009 International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology, 2009, that the problem Organizations have today is understanding the benefit of ISO 9001 and a Quality Management System. The study shows the design, developmenet, implementation and benifits before and after ISO 9001 implementation taking into account customer satisfaction and employee performance which in turn relates to the organizations overall process performance. The validation of this dissertation can be justified with the South African Burea of Standards certifing ISF Services to ISO 9001:2008 and a letter from ISF Services to state that the processes followed allowed certifcation. This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science (Industrial Systems) in the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria. Laxmi, A. B., & Maruti, S. P. (2012). An expert advisory system for ISO 9001