Sometimes the office chatter gets around to the outcome of a pending ISO 9001 certification. With a healthy combination of fear of the unknown coupled with serious concern for getting the job done right, I often hear key players speculating whether the auditor “is going to pass us.” Perceptions of over-zealous or inexperienced ISO 9001 […]
A second myth that plagues ISO 9001 implementation efforts is the cliché “say what you do and do what you say”. While the first myth is responsible for misconception regarding the amount, structure, and format of documentation needed for ISO 9001 certification, Myth #2 misleads organizations as to the purpose and true intent of ISO […]
Welcome to the first part of the ISO 9001 Myth series of articles that will attempt to dispel some common misconceptions about ISO 9001. In this first installment, I will address the misperception of ISO 9001 as a documentation glut.
ISO 9001 certification has become almost synonymous with a bureaucratic documentation glut. Most companies seeking ISO […]
03.15ISO 9001 & the Law
A colleague who is an attorney and an ISO 9001 advocate requested my comment to his recent blog post. In his post he asserts that several recent defense contractors settled law suites with the Department of Justice because “their ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems were broken.” He also goes on to state that “it also […]
We have been getting a lot of inquiries from companies that are trying to budget for consulting and implementation of an ISO 9001 based quality management system (QMS). These inquires include every QMS standard: TS 16949, AS9100, TL 9000, ISO 13485, and even ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. The last inquiry went like this: “I […]
07.28ISO 9001 Q & A
The Director of Operations of a perspective client asked me to address some of the concerns, questions, and reservations that his executive leadership has about implementing ISO 9001. He has been trying, unsuccessfully, to convince his executive leadership that developing a formal quality management system based on ISO 9001 was critical to the organization’s growth […]
It is hard to believe that so many years after the release of ISO 9001:2000 there are still a lot of “old school” perspectives and misconceptions about the role, form, and function of the “quality manual” (ISO 9001:2008 sub-clause 4.2.2). I developed the Lean QMS® Map (a 2-page graphical version of a quality manual) in […]