Understanding Section 10

Hi, my name is Jared Clark. I am an ISO consultant with the Evata Consulting Group. This is an educational video on Section 10 of ISO 9001 “Improvement.” The purpose of this article is to give you an understanding of what Section 10 requires.

Section 10 is entitled “Improvement.”  Section 10 is a relative short section of ISO 9001, but that is not to say that improvement is not considered important by ISO 9001. Improvement is addressed so much  throughout the standard that not much is really necessary here, other than to reemphasize the importance of improvement initiatives and continual improvement.

Section 10.1 to requires you to:

• Determine and select opportunities for improvement
• Implement any necessary actions to meet customer requirements and enhance customer satisfaction

Throughout the standard, you are asked to identify opportunities for improvement relative to each subject matter, from strategic planning to customer satisfaction to monitoring and measuring. If your organization will just live up to the full potential in each area, then your improvement will be virtually guaranteed.

Improvement will also be the natural result of the nonconformity and corrective action requirements of the standard. Corrective actions are addressed in section 10.2, but we already addressed these as part of the training for section 8.7 on nonconformities and corrective actions.

However, just because many improvement processes are already required throughout the standard, this should not prevent you from creating other methods for identifying opportunities for improvement if you see a need.

In particular though, when determining and selecting opportunities for improvement, the standard asks you to consider the following:

• Improving products and services
• Correcting, preventing or reducing undesired effects
• Improving the performance and effectiveness of the quality management system

Examples of improvement can include correction, corrective action, risk plans, breakthrough change, innovation, and re-organization.

Section 10.3 is entitled “Continual Improvement.” This section simply places the emphasis on Continually improving the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the quality management system. Not just when you aren’t so busy, or when an interested party is compelling you, but continually.

For more information on how to implement this section, watch our implementation videos for section 10, and review our template library for examples.