When do I rebrief my procedures

Currently going through an external review audit and had a clash of heads with the auditor - they said every incremental change to a procedure needs to be communicated to the staff - I said no it doesn't - they were briefed on the first release and any major changes. If I carry out small tweaks to the procedures then they are not rebriefed. All employees have full access to the latest version.

So question - if the process remains unchanged and I update the procedure so I have to re communicate and brief/train my staff?

 

Do you find any value for doing so? I don't think so.

This, I find value.

The next time you meet your auditor. ask him/her: "Where is the SHALL?" about this, and more importantly, "Where is the VALUE on this?"

 

I think Andy, Tony and RoxaneB have the skinny of it, I am not conversant with the ISO 14001:2004 Environment standard but I assume they all share a common core, document control being one of those shared elements.

In AS9100 I have personally seen two extremes of this, and a much more narrowed view point from the Transport Canada Auditors when I worked for a Helicopter company here in Calgary. Basically, AS9100, under 4.2.1 General (Documentation Requirements) has a bold note in it meaning this is an addition to the ISO standard by the AS9100 group, this states " The organization shall ensure that personnel have access to, and are aware of, relevant quality management system documentation and changes." There is that pesky shall word.

When you take a literal view, if your procedure changes, the folks that use the procedure need to know, especially if it affects conformity of your product. Now is that training or simply notification of the change? I opted for notification as explained more in detail two (2) paragraphs below.

When I worked for the aforementioned Helicopter company, Transport Canada was very narrow and strict with respect to document changes, any document change required documented evidence that those affected by the change where instructed about the change, this was a PVI finding against us (Major) for not having a record of the training covering the change. If you have had any experience with an aviation regulatory body you soon understand that arguing with an Aviation regulator is like arguing with a pig, sooner or latter you come to the conclusion that they enjoy it. Since they literally can shut your doors and suspend operational tickets you tend to do as they ask, which is what we did, we created the records required as part of our CAP response.

My current employer has a Document software ERP, that tracks changes, not with change bars but through a document compare set up which compares the two documents for the reader and the changes are highlighted, those directly affected by the change had to sign off in the system as having read the newest version of the document and those that were not directly impact get a system email notification that "Blah blah" document had been changed and if you wanted to view it click on the link, but they have no obligation to do so. This seems to have passed muster with our auditor, but it by no means indicates this is correct, just that they accept what we are doing and by accepting they are indicating we have meet the spirit and intent of the standard.

I think you need to do what you feel is best, right and proper for your situation. Probably not much help but my two cents worth anyways.

 

I couldn't agree more.