Tag Archives: iso 9001

Get back to the meaning of Quality with 9001: A Quality Odyssey

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Think quality is boring? That can only be attributable to human error. 

Sure: bolt sizes, calibrations, documents, procedures, work instructions…yeah, there’s nothing particularly compelling about all that, on the surface, anyway. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll be surprised what you find. 

If you missed our exclusive webinar, 9001: A Quality Odyssey, check it out whenever you like by heading over to our on-demand webinar library. This decidedly un-boring special presentation will open the pod bay doors of your mind by getting back to the meaning of quality management and turning to the very roots of standardization.

Far from a boring history lesson, A Quality Odyssey will link the quality standards of today to the very need for standardization and measurement in the first place, and look at the evolution of quality systems throughout the ages and what they mean for businesses today. 

Sign up today to learn how to put your quality system to its fullest possible use…which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

Top 10 essential tips to ensure top-notch training tracking

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Gone are the days that monitoring and tracking employee training is a nice to have. Maintaining this information plays a big part in both having visibility into the competency of your employees and in mitigating the corporate risk that can devastate a company if it’s not in place.

And organizations use this information in multiple ways. If you have had any exposure to the ISO set of standards, you’ll know that pretty much every standard outlined by ISO (be it 14001, 9001, 26000, 50001 etc.) includes training as an essential component.  So if you want to be certified or just conform to the standard, you better make sure that your training tracking house is in order.

But it doesn’t stop at ISO standards, look at the regulatory bodies around occupational health and safety, specifically OSHA in the US and WSIB and other agencies in Canada and around the world; not adhering to training requirements with relation to workplace safety can result in significant injury, possible fatalities and significant fines and loss of reputation.

If you aren’t sure where to start or maybe you just want to streamline your existing processes, this top 10 list can help ensure you are have a firm handle on tracking training in your organization:

 

  1. Plan for it at the outset. Locking employees into their required training courses as part of their induction process is essential in making sure that training is ingrained within your organization.
  2. Incorporate it into your processes.  Ensure when you are promoting individuals or moving them within your organization that their new contract comes with a section that details the required training for their new role .
  3. Reward it.  Offer incentives for employees who score well on their training or complete it before their required time frame. Have a {insert role} leader board that highlights top performers. Even consider allowing those employees a role i n training others.
  4. Test for it. Don’t assume that because you’ve trained someone that they’ve actually learned. You have to test and track competency to ensure that it has all sunk in.
  5. Track it. As your workforce grows or people come and go it can be difficult work to keep track of who has taken which course, how they have scored and what gaps exist in training. A spreadsheet can get unruly quickly and is prone to error while a training tracking software system like Intelex works perfectly for this purpose (*bonus – it also allows you to schedule all of your employee training – see point #1).
  6. Repeat it. Your long-term employees can easily forget the training that they went through years ago; designing and scheduling refresher courses for these individuals can help keep their skills up to date and ensure they are passing on correct processes and procedures to newer employees.
  7. Set it and forget it. Having a system in place that ensures an employee in a particular role has a series of training courses assigned to them and if they don’t take the training required, their boss is notified, then their boss’s boss, helps to make sure that things don’t slip through the cracks.
  8. Consolidate it. If you don’t already, consider having one person hold overall accountability for the training program. You’ll likely need departmental champions to manage the specific training needs for their functions but having one person that works with those champions to ensure you’re following these 10 steps can be a big help.
  9. Communicate it. This might seem pretty straight forward but if employees don’t understand exactly what they are responsible for and why it is important with regards to training, the likelihood that they’ll take it seriously will be diminished.
  10. Make visibility easy.  If you have to look in multiple places or consulting multiple people to get a full picture of how your training program is running, you are making it too difficult and opening up the opportunity for error.

 

More than likely you already have several of these points in place, particularly if you are in one of the industries that are prone to workplace accidents and injuries. But if you need help streamlining your training, our Training Management software system can help manage at least 8 of these 10 steps. To learn more visit our Training Management product page or request a demonstration of the solution.

Intelex on Quality and Cities in Municipal World

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The need for quality management is apparent in an industrial context, but how about…a municipal organization? Well, just as quality management has expanded its reach from manufacturing to customer service, quality can have a huge role in any organization, including municipal corporations.

So check out the latest issue of Municipal World for an article I wrote on Quality Management in Municipalities. You’ll need a subscription to Municipal World to read it (unless you are already among their thousands of subscribers…after all, these guys have been around for more than 115 years!) 

In the meantime, check out our recent webinar on Quality Management in Municipalities where Intelex partnered with The Town of Ajax, one of the very first municipalities in North America to achieve ISO 9001 certification. In this free 30-minute discussion, David Forget, Ajax’s Manager of Quality Service, joined Intelex to examine exactly how municipalities and other service-based organizations can benefit from ISO 9001 registration and streamlined quality management in general.

Quality management and ISO 9001…in municipalities?

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These days ISO 9001 has become such a pervasive term, and while some might not know exactly what it means, almost everyone has seen the words pop up on the sides of manufacturers, machine shops, and other industrial facilities.

But while the quality management standard specification can apply to literally any business in any industry, many are still surprised to imagine that its scope goes beyond the walls of discrete manufacturers and processing plants. Indeed, it even applies to municipalities. Except, instead of describing a process for how a bolt is tightened, in the context of a municipal corporation, ISO 9001 might dictate how a customer service call is handled. In either case, the underlying methodology for describing the processes will ultimately be similar.

Those in the municipal sector who are looking to develop or improve a quality management program shouldn’t miss our our feature webinar, Quality City: The value of ISO 9001 and Quality Management in Municipalities. This joint webinar will be hosted by Intelex and David Forget, the Town of Ajax‘s manager of quality service. Ajax was the first municipality in North America to achieve full ISO 9001 certification, an accomplishment that David spearheaded.

Among other things, including specific examples of Ajax’s situation, David will discuss:

  • The benefits and ROI that flow from implementing a quality management program within a municipal organization.
  • The challenges municipalities can expect to face when rolling out a quality management system.
  • Getting buy-in for a quality program from senior management.
  • Why seek ISO 9001 certification for your municipal corporation.
  • The relationship between streamlined quality management and improved business performance.

Whether you work with a  municipality directly, or in any other service-based organization, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. Reserve your spot over at the webinar registration page.

Understanding the business benefits of consensus-based standards

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Businesses seek ISO certification for a variety of reasons: attracting and retaining customers and clients, boosting brand image, and more.

Getting executive buy-in for ISO certification can sometimes be a challenge, and even leaders who have made the decision to seek standards certification – be it ISO 9001, ISO 14001, or any other widely used standards – often fail to consider the unsung rewards of certification.

Businesses that implement ISO standards often focus on the perceived burdens of adoption, such as expansive paper trails, demanding document management, and seemingly interminable audits. They forget that, when executed and implemented properly, certification can spell rich financial rewards.

Well, thanks to the folks at the World Standards Cooperative (WSC), an organization that promotes voluntary, consensus-based standards, business leaders have access to a variety of tools that illustrate the business benefits of adopting ISO standards. The WSC website contains links to dozens of such resources, including:

So take a look at this valuable resource, and if you are in the market for stress-free certification, don’t forget to review Intelex’s array of streamlined ISO-related products.

Training and quality: peas in a pod

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According to experts, though the connection can seem distant or indirect, proper training has a clear impact on quality, just as it has a clear impact on every aspect of business.

As business process design and ISO 9001 expert Chris Anderson noted in a blog post on the top ten root causes of business problems, poor training is the number one source of business issues. Two decades of business management led Anderson to place poor training ahead of poor methods, poor employee placement and poor engineering and design on the list.

“People don’t make mistakes,” Anderson insists in the post. “Systems make mistakes.”

And just as product and service quality issues arise from systemic deficiencies, employee performance — and its impact on quality — is correlative to the integrity of training management systems.

Training and quality are best thought of as peas in a pod — inseparable elements that should always be mentioned in the same sentence. Even if an organization feels it is 100 per cent where it needs to be from a quality perspective, training is essentially what got it there.

Best-in-class companies have thorough, streamlined training management programs (most often leveraged by software) that deliver measurable results. For those that overlook thorough training, it might be due to lack of time and other resources. However, such an oversight often leads to harsh ramifications: product recalls, brand damage, injuries, fatalities and bankruptcy.

Planning for the unforeseeable through supplier evaluation

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Having the flexibility to identify, contain, and adapt to foreseeable and unforeseeable issues is critical to a comprehensive response plan for quality nonconformances and product recalls. Proactive, responsible companies that implement comprehensive vendor/supplier/contract manufacturer evaluation programs and performance tracking systems as components of an overall quality management system (QMS) will boost preparedness and ensure smooth responses to otherwise devastating product recall scenarios.

Any business — large companies especially — should select contract manufacturers in the same way they select suppliers and other vendors: with thorough research, hand-on inspection and rigorous screening.

A good way to think of it is this: Treat suppliers, vendors and contract manufacturers as if they are your own facilities. Even if they are not providing you with an end-user product, if your company name is going to be on the final product, your customers will view you as responsible and you will be ultimately accountable for the defect.

The alternative – basic adherence to minimal regulatory requirements – does not constitute the wisest PR and quality assurance philosophy. Recall that five years ago, a nationwide recall on children’s toys containing lead paint—and manufactured in China—cast a pall on the integrity of the country’s quality standards. It also forced American toy giant Mattel to recall more than 18 million products and face significant brand damage.

Even entrenched brand images can be dealt significant blows by product recalls, especially when those recalls affect the lives and health of children. For quality managers at companies that rely on contract manufacturers and suppliers overseas, such situations are a call to action: a proactive corporate ethos on quality management — and supply chain traceability in particular — will not only save time and costs long term, it will ensure products exceed minimal regulatory requirements and avert potential public relations and brand image crises. A comprehensive QMS that enables enhanced supply chain traceability and supplier relationship management is the hallmark of such an approach and will inevitably save costs in the long run.

Five Ws: Avoiding the nightmare of a product recall

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Eggs. Toy trucks. Spinach. Meds. And now walnuts.

Recalls — and not the good kind — are a daily reality within an interconnected, modern global economy. But for the unprepared business, a product recall can be a logistical and PR nightmare, costing significant capital, and precious hours of downtime as well as — perhaps most significantly — irreparable damage to delicately nurtured brand image.

Since consumer activist agencies and public awareness at large tend to be a few steps ahead of legislators and regulatory bodies on public safety concerns, it is imperative businesses stay a few steps ahead of the game. For companies that rely on contract manufacturers, this can be easily achieved with a comprehensive quality management system (QMS).

Some essential questions — often rendered complex by the size and scope of large corporations — can be resolved with straightforward answers if an electronic QMS has been put into place.

For example, an electronic QMS is capable of providing quality managers the answers to what are known as the ‘five Ws’ of product recalls:

  • What: In the event of a product recall, the fundamental reason for the recall will narrow-down investigative work and help quality managers build a list of questions and criteria to determine who in the supply chain is responsible for the defect or issue in question.
  • Who: A company that relies on contract manufacturers around the world must determine which supplier within its supply chain is associated with the defective or unsafe part or product.
  • Where: The “who” and “where” questions are intrinsically related, for once it is established who is responsible for the issue, it can be broadly determined where the issue arose. But it is also essential to isolate where exactly — specifically within the manufacturing line of the contract supplier, for example — the defect was caused.
  • When: Supply chains can be complex systems, but it is important to have the capacity to determine when a defect or issue arose within the system.
  • Why: The other ‘Ws’ of product recalls will help a quality manager determine why a defect or issue arose. Answering this question quickly and effectively will help a business develop an action plan to respond to the product recall.

Quality managers strive for the often elusive goal of perfection but must come to grips that even in the most highly monitored systems and well-oiled machines, somewhere, somehow — by the laws of probability and human fallibility — an issue will likely arise. This probability is mitigated, however, if an electronic QMS has been implemented in the place of archaic spreadsheet- or paper-based tracking and supply chain traceability systems.

Quality’s expanding role: from manufacturing to marketing

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Given the broad scope of applicability quality management has adopted in the past two decades, it is understandable that some level of abstraction clouds its purpose.

Before ISO 9001 — indeed, before its 1971 precursor, BS 9000, a set of standards published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) to guide quality management in the electronics industry — and even before the popularity of statistician and quality management pioneer Edward Deming, the need for robust quality management was quite concrete, especially in a military context.

During World War II, the inadvertent detonation of munitions in a weapons factory as the result of sloppy handling or process oversight carried particularly disastrous results: the loss of life, raw materials, time, money, manpower and military advantage. It was this very context that spurred the consistent documentation of specific control processes and procedures; the methodical execution of activities that conformed to documented standards; and the ongoing inspection and auditing of processes and procedures to ensure higher quality, better safety and organizational advantage.

The vast popularity of Deming’s ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ methodology and quality control philosophy in post-war Japan essentially solidified the role of quality management across manufacturing sectors in Japan and, eventually, across the U.S.

Nearly seven decades later, quality management has extended its reach significantly and, far from the assembly lines of munitions factories and discrete manufacturers, is now applied to the more nebulous realms of sales, marketing, client care, and service industries of all breeds. Now, rather than documenting how a bolt is fastened or a flow metre is calibrated to ensure consistency in machine operation, a service organization must document how a call is initiated to ensure customer satisfaction and retention, for example. Further, the need to expand the scope of a quality program beyond an organization’s immediate operations and across its entire supply chain and vendor base has become increasingly important. The need for quality management, in other words, is everywhere.

Though industries and applications have changed, the benefits are plain: a robust, electronic QMS means improved product and service quality, organizational advantage, and, most importantly, greater profits.

Take a trip to Planet ISO

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As a youth I remember passing large industrial buildings in my hometown featuring large signs emblazoned with one straightforward message: “ISO 9001 Certified.”

Though my father was a quality assurance manager at a large mining company, at the time I really had no idea what the statement meant. I figured ISO certification was a good thing, but couldn’t explain what it was. Now that I live in the world of environment, health, safety and quality, I have a pretty good grasp on what ISO standards are all about, but at the time, I really could have used a visit to Planet ISO.

Whether you’re new to the world of ISO standards or not, chances are you’ll find some value in the Planet ISO YouTube channel. The page contains a ton of useful videos on everything ISO, including:

Not only is the site useful for introducing yourself to the world of ISO standards; it’s also a great way to stay on top of new information coming out of the  International Organization for Standardization.

While you’re at it, check out ISO’s Facebook Page. It is a surprisingly useful resource for any personnel charged with implementing or maintaining conformance to ISO 14001, 9001 and 26000 as well as other standards specifications.