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New Quality Manager looking for advice and support!

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Colin Pitman, Sep 10, 2017.

  1. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    As much as I believe Craig's book is a great reference point for anyone looking to translate ISO 9001 into everyday English (let's face it, those 'shall' statements can make eyes glaze over pretty quickly), the true secret is to ensure the organization's management system truly reflects...well...the organization. Make the standard conform to your organization...not the other way around. If an organization develops and implements processes simply because they are required, if they don't truly understand the spirit/intent/value of the requirement(s), we end up with a lovely piece of paper on the wall and fair bit of eye rolling and annual paperwork via meaningless audits, superficial management review/analysis. This is what lands in the lap of the Quality Department instead of developing a Quality Culture.

    We all love hearing nice things about our systems. We've worked hard to get to that stage. But keep one foot on the ground because, let's face it, the CB auditors want to keep your business and their own "risk management" is to find that balance between auditing to the requirements and not frustrating your organization.
     
  2. MCW8888

    MCW8888 Well-Known Member

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    I know that maintenance is harder than initial certificates. CB auditors have given us Major NC on an initial audits. And there were also past hurdles on initial transfer. We try to learn from those experiences. The challenge would be the IATF.
     
  3. MCW8888

    MCW8888 Well-Known Member

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    We tried our best to have a clean transfer audits after some difficult experiences.
     
  4. MCW8888

    MCW8888 Well-Known Member

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    Good Luck to you. My only advice per experience is to study the standard, take the awareness training and Internal Auditing class. Select a good CB and go through the process of certification. The moderators of this forum are excellent consultants. They have all kinds of resources that you can use.
     
  5. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    Bite your tongue. Not a consultant here. I'm still on the side of goodness and virtue. :cool: ... ... ... most days ... ... ...
     
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  6. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    With all due respect, if maintaining a quality management system is difficult, then I'm inclined to believe that there is no quality culture.

    I worked for a particular organization for 10 years - 6 years at a site before joining our corporate team. When I left the site, they would call me back from time to time to help support their audits (both internal and external). I wasn't running them...just helping out. One year, there was a strike at the site where I had worked and an external audit was coming up. Management wanted a full system audit conducted internally, but the people that would normally do the audit were out on the shop floor making product (since the operators were out on the picket line). I was asked to step in, bring a corporate team with me, and audit them.

    We had ISO 9001 when I joined the site, and then I helped to integrate their systems so that we had one resume of various standards - ISO 14001, ISRS, Sarbanes-Oxley, OHSAS 18001, our own parent company's requirements, etc.

    So, imagine the setting - A picket line to cross. A team from Corporate coming up. In-depth auditing of my "baby" after a few years of really being away from it. Management aka The B-Team making product instead of the competent, qualified shopfloor team. Sounds like a recipe for an internal audit disaster, doesn't it?

    Guess what we found...a few cracks here and there, a few little hiccoughs, nothing systematic and no obvious gaps to the requirements (either to the standards or the stakeholders). This mature system with a mature quality culture was maintaining their management system. Things had changed since I had left and the management knew I was probably going to have a difficult time accepting some of the changes (remember...this was my "baby"), but that meant they'd have to really prove the value of the changes to me during the audit. And they did. Their mature quality culture embraced change as long as it added value to their organization and their stakeholders (including the folks out on the picket line).

    And every evening on the bus, we'd be stopped by the picket line. The doors would open and one of the first questions asked was "How'd the internal audit go today?" High-fives were given when they were told it was going well.

    I'm sorry, MCW8888, but maintaining it should be the easy part if the system is truly part of the daily routine and culture of the organization.
     
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  7. MCW8888

    MCW8888 Well-Known Member

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    This is just my point of view Roxanne. I could be wrong. But I believe that this forum is valuable in guiding us through our journey with certain degree of success.
     
  8. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    You missed my point, MCW8888. I was making a joke at being called a consultant by you. And, please, it's Roxane...just one 'n'.