Making Management Review Meaningful

Training, completed training, competance

Question

I’m looking for assistance with Management Review requirement of ISO 9001:2015. We’ve been following an agenda that covers 9.3.2 a-f, but Senior Management believes that they cover much of this information in other meetings.

I found a few articles through the ASQ website, but wanted to see if there are suggestions for other resources to help make the Reviews relevant and useful rather than just checking off a box.

Answer

Management Review does not have to happen in one session but can be addressed over several meetings.  It is required that all the inputs and outputs (not addressed in your question) are recorded and accessible.

It is important that the inputs/outputs are not “checking off a box.” Management Review should be seen as “due diligence.”  For example, it is not designed to say, “internal audits were performed on xx/xx/2019.” Here is the opportunity for top management to review the audit results for improvement opportunities and determine how risks uncovered can be mitigated.

Note that the standard does not say “a meeting.” You may wish to gather the materials into one document and send it back to top management for review and approval.  This would also allow you to determine if there are any gaps to be addressed.

Try to ensure that top management notes changes in the QMS or needed. For example, does the QMS still support the strategic directions of the organization, have the requirements of interested parties changed, has corrective action found the root cause of problems, have complaints been adequately addressed and, have there been any changes in statutory requirements?

Following the review of the information, it would be my advise to publish the results to communicate these to the entire organization.

George Hummel

Process Review Requirement in 9001?

About ASQ's Ask the Standards Expert program and blog

Question

Is there a requirement in the new ISO 9001:2015 standards for annual monitoring/reviews of processes? What are any such requirements for process reviews?

Answer

First, there is no requirement to do anything annually.  Rather it is an expectation to do certain things such as calibration at least annually. The subject requirement is in section 9.3 Management review. Specifically section 9.3.2 Management review inputs includes at part (3) “process performance and conformity of product and services”.

What is commonly done is to create key performance indicators (KPIs) for each quality system process and these KPIs are periodically reviewed (at least annually) during a management review.  Any process not meeting its KPI is looked into for improvement.

James Werner

For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.