If you search for quality management in Swedish Wikipedia, you can read: "Quality management means techniques and methods for an organization to control, manage and develop the overall quality of its activities. These individual techniques and methods are usually summarized under the concept of quality engineering. A well-known overall tool for quality management is ISO 9001, the requirements standard of the ISO 9000 series.".

Quality technology in Swedish Wikipedia is linked to Quality Management in English, where the English page highlights quality management as a management issue. The Swedish page reduces the concept to a technique/method and one can immediately associate it with the traditional quality manager who applies these techniques/methods to the activities of the business, as a stamp of quality. Calling ISO 9001 a tool further creates the outdated perception that quality management is a toolbox. The conclusion to be drawn is that quality management has no strategic relevance or importance for management and the board of directors. This perception has probably existed in many organizations. Here we have a task to develop the Swedish Wikipedia page on quality management!

Here we have a task to develop the Swedish Wikipedia page on quality management!

ISO9001:2015 makes quality management a strategic issue

In fact, ISO9001:2015 requires senior management to clearly demonstrate commitment and leadership to quality management and the management system. It is no longer possible to delegate all responsibility for the management system to the quality manager. Stronger requirements for risk management and business intelligence are also driving quality management to become a strategic agenda item at board meetings.

In order to deliver value and maintain relevance, the role of the quality manager must be adapted accordingly, where the quality manager can support senior management through training, reporting and ongoing support on quality management processes, methods and tools in the quality manager's portfolio. To achieve this, the QM must ensure his/her competence in risk management and business intelligence to meet these new requirements.

Process orientation benefits cross-border quality managers

Processes are cross-cutting between organizational departments with a focus on value for the recipient/customer. Process orientation clarifies responsibilities for activities, as well as links between, for example, risk management and strategic planning. It is natural that the quality manager has a supervisory role in terms of process quality, but must also have a leading role in the development and improvement of the entire process framework as it forms the backbone of the management system and is thus subject to internal as well as external audit. The typical quality manager today is a process owner for quality management processes such as:

• Management system maintenance/further development, quality assurance, training,
• Internal audit and reviews,
• Corrective and Preventive Action according to Plan-Do-Check-Act,
• Review of the management system by senior management,
• Operational Excellence, which in turn can be broken down, but broadly speaking is about optimal strategy execution.

Increasing importance of risk management

Risk management has grown in importance in an increasingly fast-changing environment, with organizations having to face threats from, for example, competitors, critical customers, disruptive changes, environmental impacts, technological developments, cybercrime, corruption and Brexit. With risks linked to strategic objectives, risk management becomes a top management concern. ISO 31000:2018 provides, among other things, guidelines for

• Involvement of company management,
• Integration of the risk management process into the management system,
• Internal and external audit planning.

Naturally, the quality manager works closely with the risk management process manager or takes responsibility for the risk management process.

Regulatory and licensing issues and other compliance requirements

Compliance has emerged as a strategic business issue, not least for the banking sector and the highly regulated medtech industry. A growing number of regulations increase the demands on organizations to monitor developments and plan for compliance. The activity aims to demonstrate how to meet the requirements and should therefore be of interest to the quality manager. The guide document ISO 19600:2014 is also organized according to the ISO High Level Structure, the same structure as e.g. ISO 9001:2015.

Naturally, the quality manager works closely with the compliance management process manager, or takes responsibility for the compliance management process.

Quality cross-border air traffic management

The Eurocontrol Operational Air Traffic Control Center (MUAC, www.eurocontrol.int/muac) located at Maastricht Aachen Airport, manages air traffic above the level of 24,500 feet over the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Northwest Germany. An average of 5,200 civilian flights per day are managed by air traffic controllers. In addition, there is military air traffic management for Germany, the Netherlands and soon Belgium. Effective air traffic management is cross-border and national borders are just that, limiting when traffic flows are to be supported, less delays, less fuel consumption etc., while maintaining safety. In 2015, the EU developed a strategy to make Europe's aviation industry a leader in terms of sustainability, efficiency and reduced delays, despite increasing air traffic. The strategy is underpinned by the Single European Sky vision where airspace division does not take into account national borders. However, national vested interests with state monopoly structures in air traffic management are delaying the rapid development and efficiency improvement that would be desirable.

The MUAC is the only air traffic control center in Europe that is cross-border in terms of the 4 countries and has historically delivered high performance compared to other European air traffic control centers.

Air traffic control operations are very complex, not least because of the intensive traffic and, in addition to the operational part, include a very large IT department that operates and maintains the operational support systems and develops innovations to improve the efficiency of air traffic control, such as automation of communication between pilot and air traffic controller. ISO9001 certification of the management system is a requirement linked to the air traffic control license from Maastricht. 

When I started my 5-year appointment as Quality Manager at Eurocontrol MUAC in 2014, a radical reorganization had just been initiated, resulting in a process-oriented matrix organization. A classic situation with a period of uncertainty, where employees were given new roles and responsibilities. My primary task as QM was from the beginning to drive the development project of a new integrated management system, including coordination of process definitions with a modeling tool that was new to the organization. A critical milestone was that the management system would undergo external periodic ISO 9001 audit 6 months later.

With a seat on the Board of Directors, I reported directly to the MUAC Director and, as Quality Manager, was given extra decision-making power and the resources needed during a time of great change. I was also assigned responsibility for Risk Management and, a year later, Regulatory Compliance Management. These processes were natural additions to the traditional Quality Manager portfolio.

Top management support is a critical success factor for strategic quality development worth repeating. The integration of the safety management system, quality management system and security management system into an integrated MUAC Management System required further cross-fertilization in the safety, quality and security domains.

For me as a QM with limited resources, effective involvement of local compliance managers and local risk managers are important success factors to deliver value. And not least cross-border experience exchange and joint projects with Quality, Compliance, Risk Managers in other organizations.

From a reactive to a proactive role

Initially, I posed the question of how the quality manager role must adapt to deliver value in the coming 20th century. I believe that the classic role of the quality manager to ensure that the organization meets quality requirements and requirements from standards such as ISO 9001, is evolving from a reactive role to a more proactive, cross-functional role, through more involvement in areas such as:

• Environmental monitoring (Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence), facilitating that expected needs/demands from customers, stakeholders, society can be met e.g. in sustainability.
• Compliance, monitoring/planning for compliance with existing and future regulations.
• Stakeholder Management, customer surveys/stakeholder analysis (Customer Success).
• Strategic planning and quality issues on the Board agenda (Operational Excellence).

By delivering new values, gaining more visibility, the quality manager role should become more interesting and attractive as a career. Perhaps this means that the role of "quality manager" will be replaced by a more dynamic, modern title for the 2020s.

With kind regards,

Örjan Anderberg