Quality management in the 21st century

Quality management systems in the 21st century should not be unwieldy and over-documented tomes, but should be used to reflect the organisation's policy, objectives and commitment to quality.

Quality management systems should be used as the basis for continually improving business performance with a more flexible 'process based' management approach rather than the earlier, somewhat regimented, 'system based' style.

Our aim, through the use of illustration, is to provide an informative view of the requirements of the 21st century quality management system [1] and the role and responsibilities of the quality manager.