How can you improve your business dramatically for little money? By delivering quality. Quality brings repeat work and builds trust with your customers. However – it is not easy to deliver quality through other people.
In fact, it is very difficult.
A Quality Manual is the golden nugget you are looking for. Forget any business coach or development expert. Focus on your Quality Manual and watch your business improve.
There are plenty of place online to find quality manuals. However, finding the right quality manual template for your business is certainly going to take some work. It’s unlikely you will find a quality manual for your specific business. However let’s take a look at what options you have.
So let’s get into it!
What is a Quality Manual?
A quality manual is a business tool that is extremely important for any business. It doesn’t matter if you make coffee or if you make gadgets, a quality manual is something you must have in your business.
A quality system is about documenting your business processes to ensure delivery of your product or service to a set benchmark.
These benchmarks could be low or high. The point is, you are aiming to meet the benchmark each and every time you deliver your product or service.
The quality manual includes a massive amount of content that covers all parts of your business from accounting to production through to human resources.
What Types of Businesses Need a Quality Manual?
What types of business require a quality manual? I would say every business requires one.
A quality manual is essential for business survival. If you are not producing your product or service the same each and every time, your business is going to struggle to survive.
Most industries are highly competitive and becoming more competitive each day. You must keep up or close up.
It takes significant effort to deliver products and services consistently and trying this in any business without a quality manual is a recipe for failure.
What is the Purpose of Having a Quality Manual?
As mentioned above the purpose of having a quality manual is to ensure quality of output. However, it is more than that.
A quality manual helps to get your team on the same path. It helps to bind the business together and get it pointing and operating in the one direction.
Any business needs direction. Without direction it is like a ship at sea without a rudder.
Does my Business need a Quality Manual?
Yes, your business needs a quality manual. Why? Because if you don’t have a quality manual then it is highly likely your competitors already do.
You think you might be able to run your business without a quality manual, and sure you probably can. But what sort of business do you really have without a quality manual?
Not really a business. More like a management job. A quality manual helps you run your business and helps to guide your team to produce their work each and every day to a standard that is required.
If you don’t have a quality manual then get one as soon as possible. The rewards will be huge and your business will produce better quality work, be more profitable and you will have less stress.
Can I use a generic Quality Manual Template to Create my Manual?
Yes you can. Finding and using a generic quality manual will allow you to get the business basics in action quickly.
If speed is important for you then using a template will allow you to create a quality system fast. You can purchase quality manual templates online that allow you to set up a business system in an instant and customize it to suit your business.
Where can I find a Free Quality Manual Template?
A Google search reveals quite a lot of results related to free quality manual templates. Over 320 million results all related to free quality manuals. However, are any of these any good? Check out the results below.
If you have a small business, you need not complicate things. Just keep it simple. So you may be able to find a free quality manual template that suits your business fairly easily.
However, a lot of paid versions are going to help you dramatically so it might be better in the long run to purchase a template depending on your budget.
You can also consider our free and paid versions from Digital Documents Direct.
Digital Documents Direct have a free quality manual template that you can download. This template is a basic template so if you need something more advanced then consider our paid versions. They are much more comprehensive and allow you to set up a system quickly and efficiently.
Download our free version at the following link. Free Quality Manual Template. OK, it’s not very comprehensive and you are better off purchasing our detailed version, however it will get you started if you are on a shoe-string budget.
100% free from Digital Documents Direct. We hope you find it useful.
What are the best ways to create a Quality Manual fast for my Business?
Definitely the fastest and cheapest way to set up a quality system is to use MS Word. (Microsoft Word) This allows you to get the content together as fast as possible and you can implement it instantly.
There are no license fees or software fees to pay (apart from having an MS Word license), just typically a one off purchase fee to buy a template and get underway instantly.
The benefits of creating your Quality Manual in MS Word
So creating a quality manual in Word is a great way to kick things off. You can build your quality manual instantly and deliver it to your team quickly.
It will allow you to also think about the layout and the structure before you go committing to any software or website based system before you even know where you are heading with this thing.
Here are 3 Cool benefits of using MS Word to start off your quality manual.
Benefit 1 – It’s very cost effective
It will save you money. Creating a QM in MS Word will allow you to create it quickly and cheaply. If you are starting it from scratch you want to not over commit at the beginning to see what works. So creating int in MS Word is going to achieve this for you.
Benefit 2 – Start Immediately
You can start right away. Immediately. Even after you have finished reading this post. Either purchase a MS Word template to get you started or start your own from scratch.
This is a great benefit because you need to remember this document is an ever changing document and something that needs to be updated daily.
Benefit 3 – Easy to Distribute
You can roll it out almost instantly. If your team are on desktops then easy to send them a link to where you have saved it.
If your team are roaming around, then a printed out version is going to help them.
Whatever the situation, creating a Quality Manual in MS Word is fast, easy, cheap and effective almost immediately. Using a paid template makes it even easier.
What Should be in a Quality Manual Anyway?
So you may be wondering what should be in a quality manual? Well it really depends on your business. However, if you can get as much information in it as possible, it is going to help your team every single day.
From checklists to procedures through to rules and guidelines. It doesn’t really matter what you call them. The important point is that you need to have detailed instructions for everything.
Processes to Follow
Part of a QMS is including process documents and guidelines for your team to follow.
See the graphic below. It gives you an idea of a step by step process. OK, there is no way you are going to do this for every task in your business – however you get the idea that the process needs to be explained for people to follow.
Just think about the last time you bought something you had to assemble? It is basically the same principle. Get the instructions into your Procedure Manual and Quality System and this will help your team every day to perform their role and job.
What about checklists? Are they part of a QMS system?
Yes, for sure. You should have checklists for everything. This will help new team members and even existing team members hit the quality control benchmark you expect for your business.
OK, here below is a very simple example. However, it doesn’t matter how small the job is.
The impression you give to your Clients is in the detail so you need your team to be aware of the standards required and checklists achieve this easily.
ISO Quality Management System
OK, so if your business is growing then you are likely to want to consider ISO 9001:2015. This is a standard for a Quality Management System and is something you use to see if your QMS is meeting the benchmark.
So, you need to purchase the standard and then have your business rated.
Really, if you have a small business then it is unlikely to be worth your time or expense. You could likely build a more relevant quality system yourself instead. It is really for businesses that want to grow significantly and need to control the growth.
As stated on their website:
The standard “aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.”
https://www.iso.org/standard/62085.html
A Very Easy Quality Manual Template
If you are looking for a more detailed quality manual template then read more about Digital Documents Directs template on our website at this link below or click the image.
