Metrics will help senior management improve their understanding and support for quality management systems. The forum has also determined that emphasis on reportable performance metrics is vital to success. In the telecommunications industry, joint problem solving is particularly critical with suppliers and providers dependent upon each other to resolve problems quickly and cooperate in finding solutions. Metrics offer a balanced set of measures and an effective means of communicating, monitoring and improving results. Cost and performance metrics can assess quality maturity, identify areas where effort will have the most cost-effective impact, quantify benefits gained and provide benchmarking capabilities.
Metrics provide a direct link between quality management and business performance.
As a result, further benefits will be gained by providing statistics to the industry allowing feedback to suppliers of where they fall within their industry segment. Service providers will benefit by identifying where emphasis should be placed in their supplier quality efforts. In summary, metrics are perhaps the major distinguishing feature of TL 9000 and it is expected that they will provide a new driver for process improvement. It is the intent of the forum that compliance with TL 9000 will eliminate the need for compliance with other telecommunications quality management industry standards. Migration to standardization of quality system requirements, worldwide.