Purpose and area of application:
In this section the fundamental structure of the quality management system is laid down and described including the management of the quality manual. Our company-specific quality management system meets the requirements of the standard EN ISO 9001:2000.

Activities and responsibilities:
The senior management of the company WIEHAG GmbH take the sole responsibility for the quality management system and its implementation. The responsibilities of all employees are put down in the quality manual and its related documents. Those responsibilities are binding and cannot be delegated to others.

Structure of the quality management system:
The quality management system (QMS) comprises and describes all tasks necessary for quality assurance, as well as activities and means that are necessary for the implementation of an effective QMS. It is the responsibility of everybody involved into the organization, according to the structure and the processes with the company, to assure quality management.
Quality assurance for all the products and services corresponding to the demands of the customers is an interdisciplinary task and all departments and employees have to work on it. Quality management means that all the arrangements made together with our customers are kept as well as all the regulations and standards that are in place with regard to our products.

The structure of our QMS is as follows:



Level 1: General principles, systems, structures as well as responsibilities and general measures of our quality management system are described in the quality manual. The various parts of quality management are presented in the sections of the manual according to EN ISO 9001:2000.

Level 2: The second level describes processes and sub-processes that are necessary to complement and support the QMS. These processes/sub-processes regulate the processes within departments and are made out by the quality manager (QM) in cooperation with the respective departments (owners of processes) and then the quality manager examines if the processes are in conformity with the system. An overview of the processes is accessible on the computer system. The quality assurance representatives or process owners examine the processes/sub-processes with regard to their content and implement them.

Level 3: Here you can find procedural instructions that help to coordinate processes linked to one or more departments. The working and testing instructions describe the procedures in a more detailed way.
These are for example internal specifications, methods of working and testing, instructions et cetera. The procedural instructions, working instructions and testing instructions are made out by the quality manager in cooperation with the respective departments and then the quality manager examines if they are in conformity with the system. Together they are brought into force.
All the documents of level 2 and 3 are to be dealt with in a strictly confidential way by all employees and are only for use within the company. For this reason they are not part of the quality manual.

Quality management plan:
All tests are planned within the departments and regulated by the procedural or testing instructions.

Steering of documents

Purpose and area of application: This chapter lays down and describes the procedures and responsibilities with regard to the creation, examination, distribution and altering of quality management documents (system-related documents, documents related to orders and products, as well as documents dealing with higher matters such as standards). This shall guarantee that valid and approved documents which are needed for the carrying out of procedures are available at any time. The service for alterations has a similar function.

Activities and responsibilities:
The creation, examination and approval of quality management documents: The department corresponding to sub-process ‘steering of documents’ is responsible for the creation, examination and approval of documents. The examination must not depend on the person who created the document. The structure of each document (e.g. processes, procedural instructions, working instructions, testing instructions and so on) is clearly outlined in a procedural instruction and the documents are related to the various parts as stated in EN ISO 9001:2000.
The identification of each document is assured by a system of specified numbers.

Distribution of quality management documents: The system-related quality management documents are laid down according to a distribution directory in cooperation with the quality management representative of the area. The heads of department or the process owners are responsible for the implementation including the training in the various departments. The distribution of documents related to orders and products, such as plans, drawings et cetera is clearly outlined in the various procedural instructions.

Service for alterations: The department which created a quality management document is also responsible for any alterations. Once it has been corrected with regard to its content, the document is passed on to the quality manager, who integrates the document into the QMS. Afterwards a system check is carried out and the document is distributed as specified in the directory or according to information found on the computer system.
The heads of department are responsible for the distribution of the documents and also for the training of all the employees involved. Simultaneously, the versions of the documents which are no longer valid are destroyed by the head of department. One specimen of every alteration is put into archives in the quality management. The originals of all quality management documents are kept by the QM in written form and on the computer system.

Use of standards: After the request of standards from a department, the standard administrator decides if the standard needs to be requested. The responsible quality management representative decides if a service contract is made with the institute for standardizations. New standards are added to the standard overview by the standard administrator. The latter draws attention to any altered standards by means of a network mail. The general use of standards including the process of alterations is clearly outlined in a working instruction.

Steering of quality records

Purpose and area of application:
In this chapter of the manual the steering and filing of records related to quality is laid down.

Activities and responsibilities:
Quality records: Quality records are the proof that quality requirements are being fulfilled and show if the QMS is functioning. They are divided into system-related quality records, such as audit reports, and product-related records, such as testing records.

Responsibilities: The quality management is responsible for the definition of quality records and the duration of archiving. The employees of the respective departments are responsible for the proper creation, distribution and archiving. The responsibilities for steering and archiving are clearly outlined in a process.

Construction records: Construction records serve for archiving project-related records. The detailed procedure is outlined in a process.

EDP-data: Records which are created on the computer system are regularly saved. The procedure is outlined in a process.

Access permission to quality records: All the persons involved into the project or the production process can view data or documents. However, they have to return them unchanged.