» Quality Assurance Standards

Oftentimes a place of business will have a visitor from the regional, district or even the corporate office. The store sometimes now when that person is coming so they are able to prepare for the visit. When they think of preparing for the visit, what do you think they need to do? For the most part you will see the manager of that individual store flying around making sure that every aisle is cleaned properly, all representatives know the information they are supposed to know, all paperwork and such is in order, etc. This is what they believe their visitor is looking for so they bust their butts to ensure this is happening the way it is supposed to be. Sometimes they do all these things and the district or corporate personnel are not even looking for those things. The things listed above are what the upper management expects.

In any business you have to lay out what is expected from each level of the organization. After you lay out what is expected from everyone, you then need to make sure they understand so there is no confusion. What potentially could happen is that a team member can say they didn’t understand the instruction thus not doing what was asked. Follow up is very important when expectations are laid out. So when higher management is coming for their visit, they are expecting the basics are already being followed. Most likely they are coming to talk about new initiatives and to offer their help on any given topic.

To the higher management team it would often give them a sense of amusement or even disappointment when they do not see the basics done. If the basics are not done then how can they expect a store to move on to a different level? There have been times in which the corporate team has come into a location and walked back out because the basics were not done. They did not feel they needed to waste their time with that store. That is more than just an embarrassment.

The best way to ensure that your visitors will enjoy their visit is ensuring that the basics are done without mention and you are working toward fixing whatever issues you are having. You should not wait until the day before their visit before you begin to inform your staff of the things they need to do. You should be looking over your business daily and ensuring the quality of our service is above standard. The more emphasis you place on checking your systems and making sure the expections are met, the better you are off in the long run. If you are able to identify any problem early, you could potential avoid any disaster that could come your way. On a daily basis, check to ensure the basics are up to par. It should not take you very long if this is an everyday check. Eventually the basics will be so perfect that you will not have to check them as often.

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Customers will try to find out as much about the self storage facility from different sources. They will go online, ask a friend and even call around. Of course some facilities will do their best to put their best feet forward to impress their potential customers. Since not every customer knows what separates a good storage facility from a bad one, we have listed a couple of things to look for below.

Is the location is a safe area? This is a question that a lot of new customers do think about. When they are looking around for the best quality self storage facility, it is important to really know where the facility is located. If you are not sure by looking online or in the yellow pages, do searches on a map or you can call the storage facility to ask them. Then you can usually look on a map or find some information about that area. It is even a great idea to take time to drive by the location. Take a look at the block the facility is on, the block before and the block after the facility. You can get a good idea of the area the location is in.

Doe the store take care of doors, fences, ect? As you are driving by or deciding to visit the facility, you can observe the facility itself. How do they take care of their property? Are the doors worn? Does the facility look like it could use a paint job? Does the facility look like someone has been there in the last couple of years? Sometimes the environment can overwhelm the storage facility if someone is not taking care of it.

Is the location clean? When you go down a visit the facility or drive by does the facility look like someone actually cares about the appearance of the facility? Is there a lot of debris just blowing around the facility? When you walk into the facility can you tell the last time the carpet has been vacuumed? There are many more questions to ask yourself as you visiting facilities. The reason you are thinking about these things is to determine whether or not the facility will take care of whatever you need. If the storage managers take care of the facility and insure the quality of their facility, they will take your requests seriously as well. There will be facility managers who try to shine even though their facility is not pleasant. Unfortunately the appearance and condition of the facility, might attract some unwanted visitors such as bugs, rats and other things.

What kind of security technology is at the store? We are not saying that a facility has to be completely locked down to the point where there is an armed guard standing out front, but typically a quality facility will invest in some security technology. Facilities will actually brag about their technology if they have some. They will tell you about their access control gate, where only those people that have pin number allowed access. They will tell about their motion sensors that will have the lights turn on when you enter that portion of the storage facility. That’s the company thinking about saving money and not have their lights on all the time wasting money, which in turn makes your rental costs go up.

Does the staff back up the store? What does the staff really think about the facility they are working for? Do they think this facility is good to rent from? Even if the facility manager does not think so but they still decided to say yes, you will be able to tell. Then you have to decide if you want to rent from a facility that decides to lie. If the facility manager says that the quality of this facility is not great at all and they go on for a time telling you what’s wrong, then you have to decide if you want to rent from a facility who’s manager does not like it there. You have many things to think about.

How full is the facility? That will definitely tell you some things. If the facility is full that could tell you that people like to rent there for some reason. Is it the location, the price, friendly staff or something else? If you time it just right, you might be able to bump into a person that already rents there. You might be able to ask them a couple of questions to find out what made this facility the one they wanted to rent from.

As you see, there are many different things that make one self storage facility better quality than another one. Not all facilities are created equal. In fact, the basics of self storage are the same, but every facility tries to put their spin on it. After all this information, finding the right facility for you could be as simple as having an honest conversation with the property manager. Sometimes the facilities that do not have a lot of flash, get the most customers due to their honesty.

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Quality assurance standard is a written set of instructions and guidelines followed by various industries in order to maintain the quality of their products or services. Big as well as small businesses adopt these quality standards worldwide and get certification after audit from the authorized body that ensures the company and its manufacturing or service delivery steps and procedures are in compliance with the laid down standards and polices. This certification enhances the brand value of the organization, its products or services and it also instills confidence in the customers. Some QA standard documents are industry specific while some apply to all organizations. One such universal standard that applies to all types of organizations is ISO 9001.

What Is ISO 9001

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO standards for quality are recognized worldwide and hence ISO certified organizations have far better opportunities to trade in the international market. ISO 9001, quality assurance standard can be followed by any kind of industry, whether it is service or manufacturing industry. Each organization should develop its own quality management system in order to adhere to ISO 9001 guidelines. To get ISO 9001 certification, the organization has to undergo three audits. The first audit is conducted by the quality monitoring and inspection professional from within the organization i.e. internal auditor. The second such audit is conducted by the customers using the product or service in question, and the third audit is conducted by the organization that is authorized to grant ISO certifications for quality maintenance.

Benefits Of ISO 9001 2008

The ISO 9001 standard was first published in 1987. The latest edition of the standard is ISO 90012008, which was released in December 2008. This edition has minor changes as compared to the earlier one i.e., ISO 90012000.

Adhering to this standard benefits the organizations in the following way

Systematic Approach

The standard helps the organizations to function in a more systematic manner. There are defined systems, processes, and procedures in the organizations to do each and every task. Teams are designated to perform these tasks. Hence, it results in more organized and systematic approach to work which improves employee satisfaction and retention.

Improved Quality

The systems are integrated in the whole organization to deliver good quality products or services. This leads to improved quality and less rework. All this helps the organization to reduce wastage and increase margins.

Customer Satisfaction

The customers trust the organizations that are ISO 9001 certified because this QA standard certification offers a sort or a assurance of the good practices and systems in organizations. When customers get good products or services in accordance to their requirements, their loyalty towards the organization increases. This results in more business for the organization. The profits of the organization also increase.

Increased Margins

Margins of the organization improve due to multiple effects. Some of the reasons for increase in margins are –

• When good quality products or services are manufactured or delivered, there is very little rework and fewer customer complaints. This results in lesser wastage and hence increased margins.
• Since according to the requirement of QA standard , there are set procedures, it results in greater employee satisfaction, which in turn results in greater productivity and improved margins. It also reduces the cost of training the employees.
• Since organization gets more business, their margins improve.

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Quality assurance standards are published documents that are recognized by various bodies and are used to develop quality management systems in different organizations. There are various quality standards which organizations can adopt depending on the nature of their business. Reputed organizations prefer to do business with organizations that follow good quality management systems. This assures them that the deliverables will be of good quality and that there will be no hassles in doing business with such firms.

Some Of The Quality Assurance Standards Include

ISO 9001

This is the most widely used standard. Any manufacturing or service industry can adopt this quality guarantee standard. It is based on eight principles, which determine that the quality systems developed and implemented by the organization help in satisfying customer needs properly. Organizations have to undergo audit process by an authorized body in order to get certified for ISO 9001. The organizations that are ISO 9001 certified are required to properly document, implement, and review their quality management systems periodically.

SQuaRE

This is a software quality standard. Quality is very important in IT industry. The software quality should strictly be maintained so that the customers are satisfied otherwise it results in huge losses for both customers and the company. ISO/IEC 25000 provides guidance to SQuaRE. These quality assurance standards are used to maintain the quality of software during the product life cycle process like defining the requirements of the customers, design, implementation, testing, and validation process. Also, it is used to maintain the quality while the product is in use.

TS 16949

This standard is specially meant for the automobile industry and has been developed by ISO and the IATF. Any other industry involved in supply chain management can also use this standard to improve their quality. Some of the big names in the field of automobile industry are members of IATF and hence TS 16949 is recognized by almost the entire automobile industry for quality. Adopting this standard help automobile companies all over the world to do business with foreign companies.

ISO 22000

ISO 22000 is used in food industry to maintain food safety and quality. Food industry has to maintain very stringent quality and safety parameters as bad quality of food can affect the health of the consumers. ISO 22000 quality assurance standards help these industries to develop quality management systems in such a way that the quality of food is maintained at all stages like farming, food processing, food packaging etc. This standard is generally combined with ISO 9001 and HACCP to obtain the optimum results.

ISO 17025

ISO 17025 is used for testing and calibration laboratories. Laboratories that conduct testing and calibration as well as organizations that have internal laboratories for similar tasks can follow this standard. To get ISO 17025 certification, the laboratories and organizations have to fulfill some technical and management requirements as mentioned in this standard. One of the benefits of getting ISO 17025 certification is that the test results of such laboratories are internationally accepted.

Besides the above, there are various other quality assurance standards followed by the organizations to develop their quality management systems.  Following international standards helps organizations to improve their quality continuously as well as do business globally.

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