When we think of getting value out of Internal Audits, sometimes we draw a blank. Or we think that asking if everyone’s following their procedures will do the trick. Here are 3 ways to get more value out of our Internal Audits: Use your flowcharts as the audit path This helps us make sure everything’s […]
Supercharge your Internal Audits Read More »
One way to simplify your management system is to reduce the number of super-detailed text-based procedures. Once they are in place, you might be temped to audit simply to see if everyone’s following them. This causes two problems. The first problem is that the ‘follow the procedures or else’ message creates a culture of fear.
Give your employees credit for having a brain Read More »
It’s all about the risk, these days, and the better we manage it, the better off we are, period! The new Standard calls for it, yes, but it’s just good business practice to assess where the potholes are in our workflow and steer clear of them. Every hour of proactive planning will save 10 hours
…if you choose ‘Operator error’ as the cause of your latest non-conformance. When Ishikawa introduced the world to his ‘Fishbone’ for doing root cause analysis, his research showed that employees in organizations make errors, of course, but only about 6% of the time. The other 94% of the time,the error is caused by aweakness
You’ll be right 6% of the time… Read More »
Getting value out of Internal Audits is a constant challenge. Many of our clients found it helpful to change the focus of their audits from ‘Are people following procedures?’ to ‘Find ways to improve our system’. By getting the focus off of ‘Is everyone following our procedures?’ onto ‘Improvement’ two things happen. First, it is
Stop looking for non-conformances! Read More »
Years ago I used to deliver training in the stores of a national chain here in Canada. Most of the material was focused on the customer: How to handle difficult customers, How to tell if a customer complaint is legitimate, How to create add-on sales and so on. As you can see, there was a tone
If it weren’t for all these customers, we could get a lot of work done around here! Read More »
“People are are most valuable asset” You’ve heard this a thousand times, maybe more. It’s simply not true. People’s involvement is our most valuable asset. If we don’t tap this vast resource in our organizations, we are missing out on infinite opportunities to improve the effectiveness of our management system (read: make more money or
People are NOT our most valuable asset…Simplify Tip #4 Read More »
Have you ever heard someone say, after a non-conformance has been raised, “Who screwed up?”. The result? Everyone heads for the hills and tries to find someone to blame. People get defensive and the cause of the problem gets buried in accusations. Improvement? Not likely. Prevent it from happening again? A long-shot at best. If
Just Change ONE Question! Read More »
Tip #2 – Make your audits pay: Audit by Objectives Are your Quality Objectives considered when you plan Internal Audits? One of the driving forces in a management system is the need to improve – do it faster, have fewer errors, ship on time. That’s why ISO has us set objectives – to have something
Auditing by Objectives – Make your audits pay! Simplify your System Tip #2 Read More »
Tip #1 – Shrink the bureaucracy How many signatures do you require to authorize your controlled documents? A number of organizations we work with have created extra work with little or no added value when they require more than 1 approval to authorize changes to a controlled document. Some regulatory bodies have requirements for certain
Shrink your Bureaucracy! Simplify your System Tip #1 Read More »
