"Process approach" is one of the most quoted phrases in quality management, and one of the least explained. It often arrives wrapped in diagrams, arrows and terminology that make it sound more complicated than it is.
The idea itself is simple, and very practical.
The core idea
A customer does not experience your departments. They experience the result of a chain of work: an order is taken, engineered, planned, purchased, produced, inspected and shipped. If any link in that chain fails, the customer feels it, regardless of which department was responsible.
The process approach means managing the business as that chain of connected processes, rather than as a set of separate departments that each optimize their own piece.
ISO 9001 builds on this idea. It asks organizations to determine the processes their QMS needs, how they connect, and how each one is controlled, resourced, owned and improved.
What makes something a process?
A process is not a department and not a single task. It has:
- Inputs: what it needs to start, such as an order, a drawing or material.
- Activities: the work that transforms those inputs.
- Outputs: what it delivers to the next step or the customer.
- An owner: someone accountable for whether it achieves its result.
- Controls: the checks and criteria that make the result reliable.
- Measures: a way to know whether it is working.
Purchasing, for example, is a function. The purchasing process is the flow by which a need becomes an approved order with the right supplier, delivered to the right specification, on time.
What it looks like in a manufacturing business
For a typical small manufacturer, the main operating flow might look like this:
Customer requirements → Order review → Planning → Purchasing and receiving → Production → Inspection → Shipping → Customer feedback
Around that flow sit support processes, such as maintenance, calibration, training and document control, and management processes, such as management review, internal audit and corrective action, which keep the whole system working and improving.
You do not need a complicated map. A one-page view that shows the main processes, who owns them and how they connect is usually enough.
The map is a starting model, not the complete management system. Once the main processes and their connections are understood, the organization can determine who is accountable, what must be controlled at important points, what competence is required and what information or evidence needs to be available. The level of detail should reflect the complexity and risks of the actual work.
Why handoffs matter most
Quality problems can arise within a process, but they often become more difficult to detect or prevent at the handoffs between processes. Information may be incomplete, responsibilities unclear or changes poorly communicated. For example:
- Sales accepts a revised drawing, but Production builds to the old one.
- Receiving accepts material without knowing the special requirement on the order.
- A setup change on day shift is not passed on to night shift.
The process approach puts the spotlight on these interfaces. For each important handoff, it asks: what must be passed on, in what form, who confirms it is complete, and what happens if it is not?
The answer does not always require a new form or procedure. An existing order system, job traveler, approved drawing, shift-handover routine or clear verbal exchange supported by appropriate controls may already do the job. The objective is to make the handoff reliable and verifiable where needed, not to add documentation for its own sake.
This is often where a QMS delivers its fastest, most visible improvements.
Ownership: the part most often missed
A process without an owner tends to drift. Everyone contributes, but no one is accountable for the result, and problems bounce between departments.
A process owner does not have to perform all the work. They are accountable for understanding what the process must achieve, monitoring its performance, coordinating the people involved and addressing problems within their authority. They also need a clear route for escalating issues and obtaining decisions that exceed their authority. In a small company, one manager may own several processes. That is fine, provided the responsibilities and decision-making limits are clear.
Common misunderstandings
"It means drawing flowcharts." Maps help, but the value is in understanding and managing the flow, not in the diagram.
"It means one procedure per process." Some processes need detailed instructions; others need very little. Documentation should follow risk and need.
"It is just the org chart redrawn." Processes cross department lines. That is exactly why they need to be managed as processes.
"It is for auditors." Done well, it is simply a clearer way to run the operation.
A practical way to start
- Take one real customer order and trace it from enquiry to delivery.
- Note each step, who does it, and what moves to the next step.
- Group the steps into a handful of major processes.
- Give each major process an owner.
- Mark the handoffs where things have gone wrong before, and agree what must transfer correctly.
- Walk the result with the people who do the work, and correct it until it matches reality.
The bottom line
The process approach is not theory. It is a practical way of seeing how your business really delivers to customers, and of making sure every important link in that chain is owned, controlled and improved.
The scorecard provides an initial view of how well process ownership and operational practices are established; observing the work and validating the evidence are the next steps toward understanding what needs to improve.
Curious how clearly your processes are defined today? The free QMS Readiness & Maturity Scorecard includes questions on processes and ownership, and gives you three initial priorities to consider.