Using ISO 10010 to build an effective quality culture

• ISO 10010:2022 offers a framework to develop and manage an effective quality culture within organizations.
• The standard emphasizes aligning quality culture with organizational mission, vision, and values and measuring progress.
• Key actions include management support, clear communication, and continuous training.

Developing an effective quality culture is critical for organizational success, and ISO 10010:2022 provides a structured approach. Quality culture, which encompasses the beliefs, values, and behaviors that support an organization’s quality policy and objectives, is essential for delivering products and services that meet customer and stakeholder expectations. Unlike ISO 9001:2015, which subtly addresses culture, ISO 10010 explicitly guides organizations in understanding, evaluating, and improving their quality culture.

The process begins with defining the desired quality culture, which should align with the organization’s mission, vision, and values. This involves broad participation to articulate the desired attributes and associated behaviors. ISO 10010 emphasizes the importance of the seven quality management principles of ISO 9001—customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process orientation, improvement, evidence-based decision-making, and relationship management—as a foundation for this work.

Once the desired quality culture is defined, organizations need to establish measurable performance standards and indicators to assess the current state and identify areas for improvement. This involves developing clear performance standards that express the quality culture level the organization aims to achieve. Accepting and measuring current behaviors against these standards can be challenging but is necessary for progress.

Achieving and embedding the desired quality culture requires visible management support, clear communication of vision and values, aligned quality objectives, and honest reflection on the effectiveness of actions taken. ISO 10010 suggests continuous training, appointing culture champions, and providing resources for behavioral coaching as ways to embed and sustain the desired quality culture. Through this structured approach, organizations can leverage their investment in developing a quality culture into significant contributions to their overall success.

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