APAA believes that quality is a necessary and integral
part of any improvement program. An organisation that can meet the criteria
for Quality Certification is already measuring itself against a vast population
of dissimilar companies.
In addition, quality certification is particularly suitable
for organisations where strict adherence to procedure is essential. In many safety
oriented industries, the value of quality certification to the ISO9000:2000
Standard is recognised as invaluable. This is also a well- recognised step
for many organisations to take before they look to external partners for
more conventional benchmarking projects.
The Independent Standards we use are:-
The European Foundation Quality Model
(EFQM)
Drivers:-
Customers’ views and satisfaction
Themes:-
Leadership, culture, teamwork
Objectives:-
Organisation wide improvements
Results are measured against best practice in all
organisations using the Model.
The ISO 9000 Approach
Drivers:-
Define processes and procedures and audit consistency and adherence
Themes:-
Reliability (Drive out variability in activities
and performance)
Objectives:-
Demonstrate adherence to norms and achievement of reliability
Develop a culture of continuous improvement
Results are audited by independent certifying organisations.
We find that a suitable combination of
these benchmarking and quality approaches provides useful measures leading
to substantial improvements in all functions.
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