Quality Management Systems and Business Excellence Models

Introduction

Quality management and business excellence are the methodologies of an enterprise’s performance organization aimed at the achievement of its goals. These approaches enable controlling, assessing, improving, and coordinating the work of all the units in a company on every step of their performance. It is essential to understand the differences between quality management systems (QMS) and business excellence models (BEM) to appropriately utilize them when organizing the work of a company.

Quality Management and Business Excellence

QMS prioritize customer orientation and improvement by the estimated changes and risks. Their primary aim is to ensure the quality of a company’s products or services for the customers’ satisfaction. The systems are based on the essential algorithm consisting of planning, implementation, checking, and ultimate action for the achievement of quality management results. Thus, utilizing leadership-based techniques and the principles of relationship management, QMS allow preventing adverse outcomes.

In comparison to QMS, business excellence sets higher goals for the company’s performance requiring absolute quality of work. Business excellence, as well as quality management, concentrates on customers’ requirements and incorporates leadership and relationships management. However, it emphasizes the strategic approach to decision making that addresses all possible risks and guarantees excellent performance at the highest level of service of product quality. Thus, business excellence models employ self-assessment, constant improvements, and orientation on the best practices to guarantee the outstanding result.

Conclusion

In conclusion, QMS and BEM are different in the extent of control applied to the diverse spheres of an enterprise’s work and intensity of influence. They are based on the same principles, but BEM requires more responsibility and a higher level of quality from all the participants of the process. The excellence of performance is only possible when all the sectors and individuals within a company work as a whole coordinated unit led by the same goal which is a core element in BEM.