Responsibilities of an ISO 9001 Management Representative

ISO 9001:2008 quality management system (QMS) standard requires for top management to appoint a Management Representative (MR). As stated in the standard, this Management Representative is someone who, regardless of other duties, is responsible and has the authority for:

• ensuring that processes needed for the quality management system are established, implemented and maintained,
• reporting to top management on the performance of the quality management system and any need for improvement, and
• ensuring the promotion of awareness of customer requirements throughout the organization.

NOTE: The responsibility of a management representative can include liaison with external parties on matters relating to the quality management system.

Ensure that processes needed for the QMS are established, implemented and maintained

The Management Representative is responsible for assisting everyone (the process owners) in meeting the requirements of ISO 9001 and developing their processes according to what the organization’s QMS has established. The MR should provide guidance and training in order to motivate and ensure that everyone is carrying out their responsibilities within the QMS in an effective and efficient way.

Here it’s important to highlight that the establishment and maintenance of the QMS is the organization’s responsibility; the success or failure of a QMS should never fall upon one person.

Report to top management on the performance of the QMS and any need for improvement

The Management Representative is required to inform to top management if the QMS is working well or not by providing details of the areas that are in need of attention and the ones that can be improved. He/she should also establish trends to determine the direction of the QMS’s performance.

All the relevant information regarding the QMS doesn’t have to be collected and analyzed by the MR. Every process owner should handle and keep record of their process’s information and the Management Representative should only process this information to determine an overall view of the QMS in order for management to take the necessary actions.

Ensure the promotion of awareness of customer requirements throughout the organization.

One of the main objectives of ISO 9001 is to assist organizations in meeting customer requirements, thus, the Management Representative should ensure that everyone understands that their job can directly or indirectly influence this objective.

The Management Representative doesn’t necessarily have to carry out all of these activities; he/she just has to make sure that they are all taking place.

As it is obvious, the Management Representative should be a member of the organization’s top management. The Management Representative should be a competent person with a high level of knowledge and understanding of ISO 9001 since he/she will be the main coordinator of the establishment and maintenance of the organization’s QMS.