Clause 4.2 – Understanding the Needs & Expectations of Interested Parties

Post author:Reval Vasu Hejmady
Post published:September 20, 2020
Post category:Quality Management System

Understanding the Needs & Expectations of Interested Parties

International standard ISO 9001:2015 specifies the requirements for Quality Management System when any Organization needs to demonstrate their ability to provide the Products and services to the customer. Want to increase their business, want to enter in the open market or want to improve their business through the system. QMS standard ISO 9001:2015 have been divided in to the 10 clauses and each clause specifies the different requirement of the standard which needs to understand and implement. Without properly understanding no one will get the benefit, therefore we have started.

In the Context of the Organization It is necessary to understand the context and their needs and expectations to identify potential risk if any. It will help us to improve the performance and can reach the decided goal or destination faster. Main factors are Customer, supplier, investors, society, legal authorities, employees etc. Quality Management System is taking care of overall context of the organizations which is providing clarity before starting the planning to achieve the desired goal.

Clause 4.2

Understanding the Needs & Expectations of Interested Parties

Identification of the 2 things is important in this clause. First is who is the Interested Party for your Organization and second what are the needs and expectations which they are expecting from you or your Organization.
Interested party means who are playing an important role to make and hold the foundation of the Organization e.g. Customer, Suppliers, employees, investors etc.

Needs and expectations both are different. Therefore identification of needs and expectations based on the Quality Management System should be done separately.
First step is identification and second step is compliance. It should be review after some period. Any business organization that is manufacturing of the product or providing any type of service to the customer, Interested Parties playing the main role during completion of the activity. Some examples will be give clarity –

Interested Party	Needs	Expectations
Customer	On time delivery of the material, Quality Product	Guarantee or warranty of the Product, Free Service after warranty period
Suppliers	On time payment of the material	maximum lead time
Employees	On time salary, PF, Insurance, Paid Leaves	Better facilities in the Organizations
Investors	Sales growth of the company	Continuous profit and great return of the finance

nEEDS AND EXPECTATION

CUSTOMER

EMPLOYEE

After identification of this both things Organization should check whether we can fulfill this all things, which is impacting on the business. It will help to keep the focus or correct the focus or identify the objectives etc.

All sub clauses of the Clause 4 is giving more context of the Organization and showing the percentage of the compliance. This is additional part in the latest ISO 9001:2015.

We have explained 2 sub clauses in our article.

Rest 2 sub clauses of this clause 4 will see in the next article. Stay connected with us to get the more clarity about Quality management System and don’t forget to read our next article of rest sub clauses.