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ISO Consultants - to hire or not to hire. That is the question...

GGogoleski | 30 May, 2007 15:13

When resources are an issue, an experienced consultant can help to minimize the "trial and error" approach to implementation.

Contrary to what some "experts" may tell you (there are a lot of quality "charlatans" looking for work), no company needs to hire a consultant - some companies have implemented standards just fine on their own provided they have a knowledgeable ISO person or staff available. The purpose of hiring a consultant is to help fill in the knowledge and resource gap, especially when it is difficult to allocate and train current personnel because of staffing/resource issues. A good consultant can help your company avoid the pitfalls of improper and excessive documentation and can also be the shortcut needed for timely project completion.


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Implementing ISO 9001 - just how long does it take?

GGogoleski | 30 May, 2007 11:42

Management personnel in companies that have little or no experience with ISO-based standards often ask "How long will it take to implement ISO 9001?". The answer to this question is essentially dependent on the level of resources that an organization is willing to commit to the project.

Having a team for implementation will work far better and provide more value than attempting to make it the pet project of one individual. In most cases, that person usually ends up being the quality manager (in manufacturing facilities) or the office manager (in service-based companies). Although it isn't wrong to have those types of folks become the project managers, it is an issue when the top management of an organization treats it as a task that simply needs completion. The upper management team should be the driving force and support of the project to help instill an attitude of commitment and value to ISO 9001 implementation.

With the right determination of resources including outside consulting help, very few companies, regardless of size, need more than a year (that's being very conservative). The timeline for implementation can be cut much shorter than that depending on how the project is handled. This rule of thumb holds true for other standards such as ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001, AS9100, ISO 13485, etc. (Be careful - some standards may have restrictions on when a company is technically ready for registration.)

In order to expedite the implementation process, a cross functional team from the organization should be brought together to "share the wealth" of tasks that will need to be tackled during the implementation. From there, duties and projects can be assigned to others to help build the employee "buy-in" for the project. When all employees have some type of input into the architecture of the business/quality management system, the result is a system that truly provides a framework for maintaining a quality culture within the organization.


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Issues regarding customer oriented processes

GGogoleski | 30 May, 2007 09:13

One of the more common items that continually surfaces during implementation is the lack of having well defined processes. This usually stems from a lack of top management involvement in determining the actual core processes of a company. We have seen process maps ranging in size from as little as two key identified processes to process flow charts that look like a wiring diagram for the space shuttle. Complexity of a diagram will not impress any good auditor, especially when no one in the ranks of top management can explain it! Defining key processes is not an exact science since no two companies are exactly alike. An organization should look at the natural boundaries of specific functions and use such inputs as departments, unique products, and special operations/processes to help determine what can be classified as a customer, support or management process.


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