Archive for the ‘QMS Benefits’ Category

Why having ISO9001:2008 is more important than ever

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Some companies I’ve worked with view ISO9001:2008 as a necessary evil, and as just one more cost of doing business. These companies are typically short-sighted, and often short-lived.

When taken seriously, an ISO9001-2008 quality management system will not only save your company money, it will help you make more money. Aren’t these good things to hear in this depressed economy?

Consider these:

1. ISO9001:2008 can be thought of as a set of good business practices. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to check out your vendors before you buy from them? After all, what you buy usually is reflected by what you sell, and you want to sell only the best. And if a vendor screws up repeatedly, wouldn’t it be good to keep track of these screw ups, and weed out the bad vendors? ISO9001 will help you with this.

2. Having your ISO9001:2008 certificate sets you apart from your competition. Worldwide, knowledgeable buyers will tend to think that you have your act together, and that your quality is probably better than your non-ISO competitors.

3. Isn’t it a good idea to keep track of your company’s screw-ups, and fix them so that they never happen again? How many hours and dollars has your company spent dealing with the same problem over and over? Wouldn’t it be nice to deal with it just once? ISO9001 will help you with this.

4. Do you really know where you stand with your customers? Wouldn’t it be good to have a formal process to measure customer satisfaction? How can you know where to best focus your improvement efforts if you don’t have data on what areas need fixing?

5. Do you have complete and up-to-date training records for your people? With fewer people on your payroll, you really don’t want to take it for granted that someone has been adequately trained for a particular job. Isn’t it a good idea to periodically evaluate how effective their training has been?

There are so many reasons why having an ISO9001:2008 quality management system is an advantage in today’s economy. I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg here. I’m sure readers of this blog (all 3 of ‘em!) can provide many more examples of why its so good for your company to have an effective ISO9001 quality system.

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ISO9001:2000: Is An Easy Auditor a Good Thing?

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

In the world of ISO9001:2000, I divide organizations into 2 camps. The first, and far more popular, are the companies that need to get certified due to customer pressure. They look at ISO9001 as a necessary evil, a royal pain in the ass, but they have to do it. The second camp, not quite so common, are the companies that want ISO9001 for the organizational and efficiency benefits that can be derived from following the standard.

Not long ago I consulted with a company that wanted to get their ISO9001:2000 certificatation for the usual reason- customer pressure. They were a pretty good group of people, but clearly they thought they had better things to do than follow some silly quality standard, keeping unnecessary records, having more boring meetings, conducting useless audits. Anyway, we got through the process without too much trouble, and scheduled a visit from our friendly auditor.

The auditor, Al, turned out to be a very nice man, obviously with many years of experience. Al had a lot of wisdom to share with us, and wasn’t afraid to chat endlessly on topics ranging from the Dodgers and home repair to travels in Europe and antique car restoration. Oh, yeah, there was some talk about the ISO9001 standard too.

Al didn’t seem all that interested in getting up out of his comfortable chair, and would ask someone to get certain files for him. This, of course, allowed the audited person to pick and choose which files he brought to the auditor. In fact, Al didn’t even check quite a few records that I sure would have if I were lead auditor.

This got me to thinking, is an easy auditor a good thing? Sure the company is happy that they got through the audit easily, and I’m happy that my consulting skills resulted in another ISO9001 :2000 certification. But has the easy auditor really done them any favors? Will this company be prepared in the future if a tougher auditor visits?

Now I had done my best to prepare my client company for a “real” ISO9001 audit. I thought they were in pretty good shape. During the audit, however, two of the employees unwittingly sabotaged my efforts by creating forms for their own department’s use, and not informing anyone outside the department. While I spotted this, our easy auditor didn’t seem to notice.

I’d like to think that, maybe, that it was immediately obvious to the auditor that I had done a great job preparing this company for ISO9001, and that actually checking records was not needed. Maybe the auditor, with his years of experience, quickly spotted a company that had its act together, so decided to take it easy for a few days. Maybe.

Posted in From the Trenches, General quality system, ISO9001:2000 blog, QMS Benefits | 1 Comment »

Do you really need ISO9001:2000?

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

OK, so you’ve heard a little bit about ISO9001:2000, or just ISO9000 as some people incorrectly call it. If you’re not in the aerospace or quality management industries, chances are you don’t know too much about it. But if you’re a small business owner, you might be wondering if an ISO9001:2000 quality management system would help you.

The answer is a definite “maybe”.

If you supply to companies like Boeing or Airbus, or the military, chances are you are required to have ISO or something similar like AS9100. But then you probably wouldn’t be reading this. You don’t really have too much choice if you want to continue doing business.

But what about all the companies out there that don’t have a customer requirement to be certified to a particular quality standard? Are there benefits to be derived from a documented quality management system? Are the hassles outweighed by the benefits?

Again….maybe.

If you are not required to have ISO, I would still encourage you to look into it. Unless you want the prestige and bragging rights of having a nice plaque on the wall, and if you have enough self-discipline to manage the quality system internally, you don’t really need to go thru the trouble and expense of dealing with an independent auditor. Depending on the size of your organization, having an audit can cost from $4000.00 or more. Not to mention a day or 3 of your time babysitting the auditor while he checks out your company. Some business owners figure that if they have gone to the trouble of creating and maintaining an ISO9001:2000 quality system, they want to be able to show this to the world. ISO can be a wonderful selling point for many companies, if your customers are aware of what it is. That is up to you to decide.

There are certainly internal benefits to having an ISO9001:2000 quality management system, other than being able to tell customers you have it. We’ll discuss this more later.

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Incoming Inspection Reduces Production Delays

Monday, May 7th, 2007

It’s really interesting to me (well, maybe I’m weird!) how improvements in procedures in one area of a company can have such a profound impact on another area, or on the entire organization.

Take company A, who implemented an effective incoming inspection procedure as part of their ISO9001:2000 quality system. Prior to implementing the quality standard, they did pretty much what a lot of companies do…..they have a guy doing receiving who’s been there a long time and “knows” everything about the job. They’ve been dealing with the same vendors for years, and they just accept the fact that a certain number of defective products will be received.

Of course, these defective products were often not discovered until something didn’t fit in production. The problems are usually too small to detect without using a micrometer or calipers. But when their vendor’s defective product was discovered, now the whole production line has to be stopped, and there are no good parts with which to make finished product.

After implementing ISO, an effective incoming inspection program was implemented, with a sample of 5 units inspected out of each 100 received. It takes one person an extra 4 to 5 minutes to receive each batch of parts from the vendor, once per day. But overall the company has saved about 2 hours per week, for their production crew of 4, for a total time savings of 8 man hours per week saved. Not to mention shipments are made quicker, and customers are happier.

There was a bit of resistance by the receiving guy at first, no one likes to be told to change his ways, but the company ended up saving time, money, and increasing their sales.

Posted in QMS Benefits | 5 Comments »