A quality management system based on fuzzy quality pointers in ISO 9000

Quality Pointers (QPs) definition is a key activity in a Quality Management System (QMS) implementation because with them the Quality Manager (QM) is able to manage production processes and monitoring them in a logic of continuous improvement. With respect to the QPs values the QM can take specific decisions on the actions to improve and to correct these values. Moreover, QM's decisions are related not only to the types of actions, but also to their distribution in a certain time period, assigning their correct priorities. The present paper fronts the problem of corrective actions' priorities through fuzzy sets and related rules, with the aim to avoid the problems related to ambiguous values of certain QPs. The approach has been applied to the main production processes of a firm producing motorboats, in which we have realised a Fuzzy QMS for Non-Conformities (NCs) management, defining an objective way to assign the priorities of actions addressed to resolve the NCs found.