10.3 Continual Improvement

Continually improve the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the QMS:

ISO 9001:2015 subclause 10.3 is titled continual improvement. Continuous Improvement is an ongoing effort to improve your organization’s products, services, and/or processes. Continuous improvement efforts can range widely in complexity, duration, execution, and subject matter. There is always room to improve which is why it is an ongoing effort.

Use information/results from internal audits, management reviews, feedback from customers, or monitoring and measuring to help you determine where your improvement efforts should be focused. If you find that you are underperforming in an area, there is an opportunity to improve it. You can also use the seven quality principles to guide an organization’s performance improvement.

Consider using the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) to guide your continuous improvement efforts. Once you’ve identified the improvement action to take, you cycle through the PDCA phases by planning the action (plan), implementing what is planned (do), monitoring the process and reporting results (check), and taking any further actions to improve if necessary (act).