Choosing and Implementing a Quality Management System at Statistics Sweden

Abstract: In today’s society we are surrounded by large amounts of information, quick decisions and high expectations to perform successfully in everything we do. As a statistical agency, Statistics Sweden is responsible for producing some of the information that is used for decision-making in society and is therefore under constant internal and external pressure to perform well. The responsibility to produce high-quality statistics to all customers and users is not simple. What is the quality of the statistics produced? How do we assure and control the quality of the statistics? Do we use our resources efficiently? These are important questions, which need to be addressed. One way of addressing these and other issues is to work with quality in a systematic fashion. Thus there is a need for a Quality Management System, i.e., a systematic way to handle quality issues of all kinds in all parts of the organization, and to continue the journey towards the vision of being a “world class statistical agency”. This Masters thesis is a description and discussion of the efforts to find a suitable Quality Management System. The thesis starts with a discussion about the vague quality concept, continues with a description of numerous frameworks, methods and systems related to quality management as well as their pros and cons and ends with a recommendation for Statistics Sweden. The recommendation is to use the EFQM Excellence Model as a quality framework, Six Sigma as a tool-box for improvement projects and modern internal auditing methods for evaluation and follow-up. Finally, issues related to the implementation of the system are discussed.