Quality policy of myStandards GmbH – MyStandards GmbH Blog

We have laid down our claim to quality in our quality policy. To this end, we have focused on the values and visions of our company. Based on these values, we regularly redefine our quality objects.

To mark the first anniversary of our quality management system, we are publishing a series of news articles on quality management & reference materials. Quality policy is the topic of the fifth article. The quality policy describes the purposes and values of a company. Our policy contains the commitments regarding compliance with standard requirements, the implementation of a continuous improvement process and on the quality of our reference materials.

We have also taken the opportunity to establish our quality management system to develop our own quality policy as a team. The two founders and CEOs, Christina Wittke and Simon Nordstad, complement each other’s skills with their backgrounds in business administration and geochemistry, and thus both bring individual perspectives and ideas about the values of a company.

Instead of deriving objectives for the company from existing structures, they used their vision to work with their team to elaborate a quality policy from scratch and set new standards.

“Our vision: to revolutionize solids analysis as a leading manufacturer of nanopowder-based reference materials.”
Translated from the quality manual of myStandards GmbH

Through a questionnaire, created by the quality management representative Lena Stölting, they independently dealt with central topics. By asking specific questions about the areas “description of the company”, “company vision” and “definition of quality”, it was possible to visualize and define the main topics of the quality policy. The background to this is that quality does not automatically have anything to do with “good”, but merely describes the general nature of a product. The requirements must be defined accordingly.

This process has led to a reordering of priorities and a review of whether the motivation for starting a business is still topical. Agreeing on the purpose of the business is an important component of starting and running a business. For example, this is also stated in the best practice guideline for technology based start-ups. Periodically revisiting this purpose is useful and is done by reviewing the validity of the quality policy in the management review.

“The Why or the purpose of the venture must be articulated by the founders together and there must be consensus on it.”
Translated from DIN SPEC 91354:2018-09; Start-ups – Best practice guideline for technology based start-ups

After everyone had become aware of their own views, the quality policy was developed in several meetings. The quality policy is ultimately composed of the requirements laid down in the standards, such as the implementation of a continuous improvement process and the obligation to meet the requirements of the standards, as well as the demands and ideals of the CEOs towards the company. The main subject areas resulting from our quality policy are as follows:

Accreditation as a reference material producer
Increase of market share
Increase in customer satisfaction
Development
Laboratory and staff
Quality of reference materials

On this basis, the first quality objectives of myStandards GmbH were written at a closed meeting and formulated in a form designed for this purpose. A review of these objectives also takes place during the regular management reviews.

More articles from our series on the quality management system: