2012

STANDARDS OUTLOOK

A PDCA Approach To TL 9000 Measurements

by Sandford Liebesman

An approach based on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) improvement loop can be used to develop a process for complying with the measurement requirements of TL 9000, the ISO 9001 based quality management standard for the telecommunications industry.

The Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications (QuEST) Forum recently added a requirement that all TL 9000 auditors pass an examination on the TL 9000 Quality Management System Measurements Handbook (MH), version 3.5.1

After passing the exam, I decided to develop a measurements improvement process based on PDCA. The process, as you will see, is very extensive because it requires interaction with clauses of ISO 9001 and the TL 9000 Requirements Handbook (RH),2as well as the MH.

The RH contains 81 added requirements, or “adders,” that enhance the clauses of ISO 9001 and provide assurance of quality management in areas essential to the telecommunications industry. The MH contains a how-to description of methods of gathering measurements essential to good customer satisfaction and continual improvement.

The measurements are sent to the TL 9000 Measurements Repository System (MRS) at the University of Texas at Dallas, where industry statistics are gathered and published. It is intended that customers and suppliers use the data to improve the quality of the industry’s products.

Measurements

Eight categories of common measurements, all having acronyms, are included in the MH:

  1. Number of problem reports (NPR).
  2. Problem report fix response time (FRT).
  3. Overdue problem report fix responsiveness (OFR).
  4. On-time delivery (OTD).
  5. System outage measurements (SO).
  6. Field replaceable unit returns (FR).
  7. Software installation and maintenance (SWIM).
  8. Service quality (SQ).

In addition, there are nine product categories:

  1. Switching.
  2. Signaling.
  3. Transmission systems.
  4. Operations and maintenance.
  5. Common systems.
  6. Customer premises and enhanced systems.
  7. Services.
  8. Components and subassemblies.
  9. End customer products.

Finally, there are three specialties:

  1. Hardware.
  2. Software.
  3. Services.

It is the responsibility of the organization to determine the scope of registration, which consists of the appropriate specialty or specialties, the associated product categories and the appropriate measurements.3

Plan

Planning starts with the determination of the scope of registration. If, for example, an organization manufactures and develops the software for base station equipment, the specialty consists of hardware and software.

The product category is determined from Table A-1 of the MH, and the required measurements are the common and added measurements listed in Table A-2 of the MH. In the example, the product category is 3.3.1 and the measurements are NPR, FRT, OFR, OTD, SO, SONE4 and SU.5 Only two specialties apply: hardware and software.

A second part of planning is to document the measurement process. This is required by clause 3.5.3a of the MH. In addition, the RH contains requirements for targets (5.4.1.C.1), and ISO 9001:2000 requires determination of applicable methods of monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement (clause 8.1).

Do

The do part of the measurements process consists of gathering the data, submitting the data to the MRS and receiving a data confirmation report from the measurement administrator.

Because ISO 9001 requirements apply, it is first necessary to obtain customer satisfaction data (ISO 9001 8.2.1). These can be in the form of survey data, in addition to the TL 9000 measurements. ISO 9001 also requires monitoring and measuring processes (8.2.3) and monitoring and measuring product (8.2.4). These are internal measurements not required to be submitted to the MRS.

The TL 9000 measurements must be collected and validated (MH 3.5.3a) monthly and three consecutive months’ data submitted quarterly to the MRS using a tool provided by the QuEST Forum Registrar Repository System (MH 3.5.3b). The data must be submitted within seven weeks of the end of each quarter (MH 3.5.3e). The methods of validation will depend upon the type of data and how they are gathered.

The data confirmation reports are sent back to the organization and must be checked for completion. All applicable items should appear on the report. The following need to be checked on all reports:

  • Submitted on time.
  • Failed items.
  • Exempt or nonapplicable items.6
  • Errors.
  • Warnings, which may indicate errors.

All warnings must be investigated to determine whether there are associated errors.

Other requirements that must be satisfied are:

  • Data for new products must be submitted no later than six months after general availability (MH 3.5.3f).
  • Data discrepancies must be corrected and corrected data resubmitted within two years (MH 3.5.3i,j).
  • If field performance data are available for the products, they must be collected and analyzed (RH 8.4.H.1).

In addition, if the specialty included service, the RH adder 8.4.V.1, collection and analysis of service performance data, is a requirement.

Check

The check activity is based on the requirements that the measurements be used internally as part of the quality improvement program (MH 3.1a and RH 8.5.1.C.1). In addition, the measurements must be included, if required, in customer-organization exchanges (MH 3.1b). Hence, the customer can ask the organization for its measurements and make a comparison to industry statistics.

The organization must compare its measurements to industry statistics and take action to improve its products and processes (MH 3.5.3g). And the data must be reported to management regularly (MH 3.5.3h). Data analysis includes reviewing trends in the data and identifying opportunities for preventive action (RH 8.4c).

Finally, the measurements must be used in the quality improvement program (RH 8.5.1.C.1), which includes targets for the TL 9001 measurements (RH 5.4.1.C.1).

Act

The MH requires each organization to compare its measurements to industry averages published by the MRS and take steps to improve as appropriate (MH 3.5.3g).

Management must review the data and the associated analyses and take action where necessary (MH 3.5.3h). The corrective action procedure (ISO 9001 8.5.2) will be used to manage corrective actions. In addition, if the data reveal the need for preventive actions, the preventive action procedure (ISO 9001 8.5.3) must be used. Finally, the improvement loop (RH 8.5.1.C.1) is closed by management review (ISO 9001 5.6).

Continual Improvement

The QuEST Forum considers its measurements process to be a key to continued improvement of products used in the communications industry. The PDCA cycle provides an extensive methodology for using TL 9000 measurements to continually improve products and services of TL 9000 compliant organizations.

The upgrading of the MH to version 3.5 has resulted in an increased role of the audit community in assuring the use and effectiveness of the TL 9000 measurements. To this end, all TL 9000 auditors must take the QuEST sanctioned MH course and pass the associated exam.

REFERENCES AND NOTES

  1. TL 9000 Quality Management System Measurements Handbook (MH), version 3.5, QuEST Forum, 2003.
  2. TL 9000 Quality Management System Requirements Handbook (RH), version 3.0, 2001.
  3. Note that the organization determines its scope in coordination with its registrar (RH 3.2). This includes the organization’s certification specialty (RH 3.2b).
  4. SO is a service outage that affects the end user; SONE is a service outage that affects only a network element.
  5. SU = software updates. This is one of the SWIM measurements.
  6. Exempt means the measurement is not required; nonapplicable means the organization must report the measurement but cannot for legitimate reasons.

SANDFORD LIEBESMAN, a standards consultant and auditor, is former ISO manager for corporate quality and customer satisfaction at Lucent Technologies. He is a member of ISO Technical Committee 176 and the QuEST Forum. Liebesman is also a Registrar Accreditation Board certified lead auditor, a certified TL 9000 lead auditor, author of Using ISO 9000 To Improve Business Processes and co-author of the ASQ Quality Press book TL 9000: A Guide for Measuring Excellence in Telecommunications.

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