Overview
ISO 9004:2018 - "Quality management - Quality of an organization - Guidance to achieve sustained success" gives practical guidelines to enhance an organization’s ability to achieve sustained success. Consistent with the quality management principles in ISO 9000:2015, ISO 9004:2018 is applicable to any organization regardless of size, type or activity. The standard includes a self‑assessment tool to help organizations review how well they have adopted its concepts.
Key topics
ISO 9004:2018 covers a broad set of organizational quality topics (as shown in its table of contents). Key areas include:
- Managing for sustained success and understanding the organization’s environment and interested parties
- Strategy and policy: formulation, deployment and communication
- Identity and leadership: mission, vision, values and culture
- Resource management: financial resources, people, suppliers and partners, infrastructure, knowledge and technology, natural resources
- Process management: process planning, responsibility, control and performance of processes
- Monitoring, measurement and analysis: performance indicators, internal audit, benchmarking and self‑assessment
- Improvement, innovation and learning: continual improvement, innovation processes and organizational learning
- Informative annexes including a self‑assessment tool, quality management principles, and cross‑references to earlier editions and related ISO standards
Practical applications
ISO 9004:2018 is designed to be used as guidance to:
- Conduct organizational self‑assessments and gap analysis using the included tool
- Align strategy, policy and operational processes to improve long‑term organizational performance
- Improve resource allocation (people, infrastructure, technology) and supplier/partner management
- Define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking activities
- Foster continuous improvement, innovation and knowledge management across the organization
Who should use it
- Senior leaders and executive teams seeking sustained organizational performance
- Quality managers and continuous improvement professionals complementing ISO 9001 systems
- Business consultants, auditors and advisors working on performance assessment and strategy deployment
- Any organization (small, medium or large) aiming to strengthen resilience, competitiveness and long‑term value
Related standards
- ISO 9000:2015 - quality management fundamentals and vocabulary (ISO 9004:2018 is consistent with these principles)
- ISO 9001 - requirements for quality management systems (ISO 9004 can be used to complement ISO 9001‑based systems)
Keywords: ISO 9004:2018, quality management, sustained success, self-assessment, organizational performance, continuous improvement, process management, resource management.
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