With the proliferation of companies claiming to conform to the requirements of this international Standard, we might well come to believe that product and service quality has reached its peak and every customer is satisfied with the performance of their ISO9000 registered supplier. On the other hand we could have simply misunderstood the purpose of [...]
This ISO Standard contains an element (8) intended to encompass a range of features which together support a mechanism to improve the performance of the management system. Internal audit forms part of this set, but only a part, yet is probably the only element readily recognisable to the average person. Internal audit is significant, not [...]
A common perception of the requirement ‘continual improvement’ contained within the ISO9001 Standard (8.5.1) is that in some way it relates to an improvement of product or service. Some more serious thought might reveal this to be a misinterpretation, as the document is not a product or service specification, but a system for controlling the [...]
In every human endeavour there is an element of risk; personal, project or financial, or a combination of them all. The task of the responsible individual is to identify the risk and act accordingly. We all do these ‘risky’ things, almost daily, aware that we are taking a risk. Rather than avoiding risk we become [...]
In an attempt to define an effective set of management processes, ISO 9001:2000 has a section devoted to the management of the contract process. Earlier versions of the Standard (e.g. ISO9001:1994) defined this activity as Contract Review, a clear indication of its nature and purpose. ISO 9001:2000 has located it in a section (7.2.2) “Review [...]
There is an increasing emphasis on the management of environmental factors affecting our personal lives, our community and the world at large. As individuals, it is difficult to see how our contribution can have any effect on the grand scheme of things, but equally, any large scale change comes about as a consequence of numerous [...]
Following the development of a management system for Quality - e.g. ISO9001′ is the need to maintain and improve the performance of such a system. ISO 9001 in its current form requires the organisation to continually improve, and for auditors and managers alike this improvement requirement has been difficult to define and therefore to demonstrate.
Independent [...]
Wherever the ISO9001 Standard is discussed, the one certain item will be that of Improvement. Most often considered is the Continual Improvement requirement of the ISO Standard (section 8 ) or possible improvements to the Standard itself. This latter particularly at the present time as we await the publication of ISO9001:2008.
Seldom heard is any discussion [...]
One doesn’t have to be around for more than a decade or so to witness the apparent rise and fall of several management schemes (some say fads) intended to change the world, or at least the confined world of the operation in which you function. To start the sequence we had Quality Circles, supposedly to [...]
Those of us closely involved with management system development and improvement are frequently consulted on the relative merits of separate rather than integrated systems for these two standards - and of course other combinations.
Avoiding the trap of siding with a particular faction within the organisation posing the question, the logical solution is to integrate the [...]