Top management shall appoint a member of management who, irrespective of other responsibility, shall have responsibility and authority that includes

NOTE The responsibility of a management representative can include liaison with external parties on matters relating to the quality management system. (From BS EN ISO 9001:2000)

This clause is very similar to the 1994 language but with a few improvements.

In short, the intent of this clause is that top management must appoint a manager (preferably within his or her own company) as a representative who will be the single point of contact within the company for establishing, implementing and maintaining the quality management system. This representative also needs to report to top management on the performance and effectiveness of the quality system.

Note that this person doesn't have to be a member of top management to be the management representative. But in case top management is absent and a decision must be made for the business, the management representative must have the power to act when necessary.

This was one of the shortcomings of the 1994 standard. An organization would have a management representative or "deputy" identified, but the person rarely had the authority to get things done. That's where this clause has been strengthened-it ensures that the management representative is high enough on the chain of command to make decisions.

Another change in this clause is the new awareness that the management representative must bring concerning customer requirements. This person needs to ensure that the business and the quality management system have the fundamentals in place when it comes to communicating the needs of customers. In other words, there needs to be open channels between sales and operations-always.