An approach to define quality pointers for a quality management system in ISO9000 environment

Quality management systems (QMS), could be a strategic tool in order to rationalize and improve administrative and industrial management because it allows us-in a logic of continuous improvement-to identify a set of quality pointers able to monitor the processes. Recent renewals of QMS have involved a redefinition of pointers system, through the restyling of the existing procedures and the introduction of new processes, having the goal to improve the control instruments and to guarantee an effective control process and therefore to turn out the best one in terms of satisfaction of user´s requirement. As well-known quality pointers supply qualitative and/or quantitative information associated to phenomena or to processes so, given a process, we have to identify their location; this is an important and critical system phase, because if they could guide us to an erroneous appraisal on the effective improvement pursued by the organization. The aim of this work is to set up a QMS methodology able to point out a set of pointers able to measure objectively the obtained improvements or to define the lack point of a production system. To test our approach we have also applied it to the production process of a SME producing motorcaravan and motorhome, in which product personalization is very extreme, making it to become practically a single-type production. The improvements obtained through the implementation of our approach has been mainly related to a decreasing of non conformities (NC) in production of up to 25% and as a main result, the QMS has given the same performance at the change of the production types