Any worthwhile Standard starts with a set of ‘Principles’. ISO 31000 is no exception. Let’s see if we can tie these Risk Principles into a typical ISO Management System. Value Creation and Protection is at the core of this section of ISO 31000 and gives it relevance to any business. Without ‘structured risk management’ an […]
ISO 31000 – Your Blueprint for Risk Management! Read More »
Tackling Clause 6.1 in ISO 9001 can be structured by using Ishikawa’s fishbone diagram. You can ‘reverse engineer’ it to create a framework for a simple risk approach. Ishikawa discovered that most non-conformances typically have their ‘root cause’ in one or more of these four areas: People (he called this category Man). This relates to clause
You may recognize Deming’s 8th ‘Point’ – Drive Out Fear. There’s no better way to get people ‘engaged’ (ISO 9001, 5.1.1 h) than creating a work environment where people feel listened to and respected for their expertise, no matter how ‘basic’ that expertise is! In this Point, he talks about 4 things to do to
Unleash Potential…Drive Out FEAR! Read More »
This topic has been batted around for over 30 years, since the first version of ISO 9001 was released. For organizations that like LOTS of documentation these words open up a whole world of possibilities for mountains of documents. The fact of the matter is, ISO allows for any type and amount of documented information.
Process vs Procedure – the battle continues! 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 »
…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 a
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 »
“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 »
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 »
