The latest news concerning the UK recession suggests that it is over and economic growth is with us once more.  Whether this is supported by the statistics remains to be seen, but recessions are not all bad, and recovery is not wholly good.
This is a good time to examine the role and responsibilities of those [...]

For much of the past hundred years it has been common practice within manufacturing to employ sampling techniques to determine the acceptability of product.  The purpose of this sampling is to permit an assessment of specified features of a product without the cost - in time or money - of examining every item in a [...]

You may have read the title of this article as being relevant to the introduction of the new ISO 900 standard [ISO9001:2008], whereas the intention is to try to protect the integrity of audit and quality management in a time of economic downturn.
While business is prospering there is always a tendency to over populate an [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In any discussion of quality management systems and practice, there eventually arises the question of ‘quality costs’.  It is distinctly passé to be outside such a conversation, as everyone is expected to have a view, and to be involved in the measurement of such costs.  But what are these costs, how are they relevant to [...]