Starting from first principles

Hi,
I'm brand new to the forum and I suppose brand new to ISO9001 as well. I work for a small 100 people engineering service company where I'm a Project Manager. I've been asked to look at implementing ISO9001 2015 as a project and as far as i'm concerned i'm starting from scratch and don't have a formal quality background - I'd say the best alignment I have is risk management and leadership with my skill set as well as good management support.
I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book/e-learning course/sources of information that would be a good starter for 10 for me. Many thanks Ian

 

Buying a book to use as reference is cheaper than attending training or hiring a consultant. But doing it yourself exposes your organization to risks like:

• the recommendations in the book may not readily suit your company's operation;
• the book cannot answer back if you need to clarify things;
• people tend to be less involved if being coached by an insider than by an external service provider;
• unsure of the approach that you will implement, unlike being coached by someone who's "been there, done that";
• extended time of setting up the QMS due to trial and error or so many ideas that you need to accommodate or to kill;
• before others buy/adopt your approach, there's a lot of convincing to make.

 

Hi Tony
Thank you for your reply but unfortunately hiring in consultants/coaching is not my call one way or the other and there's no-one to mentor - if there was anyone better placed it would'nt be coming my way! - but surely there must be some good written material out there....

 

What about attending training?

 

Hi Tony
I find attending courses hit and miss - you may get a real expert and you might get someone reading the slides and notes. I did ask for any recommendations on e learning courses as i find them of consistently high quality in my first thread. I suppose I know what works best for me in terms of how I learn.

 

Thanks Andy and Roxane - just looked at capable people website and will contact them for the distance learning courses. Thanks for the help

R Ian

 

Ian - you should read Cochran's "ISO 9001 2015 in Plain English". Someone on here suggested it to me and it has been very helpful.

 

I would recommend that you attend an ISO9001:2015 awareness training. After the awareness training, you can develop your project plan. Send a private email to one of the moderators on this website. I highly recommend anyone of them as consultant.. The consultancy is only temporary. Invite one of these moderators to visit your site to scope the system and perhaps deliver an awareness training to your CEO. My humble beginning as a quality coordinator started with knowing nothing about these standards. I learned the QS9000 standards from "jump street". My lack of understanding prompted me to attend one of these ASQ summit meetings and it was there where I met a quality consultant who guided me through the end. The role of my consultant was to educate the Top Management as I struggled through the massive documentation. You have to spend some money to make this happen. Don't forget Cochran's book: ISO9001:2015 in plain English. I hope sharing my experience helps in your journey.