Management Commitment

Let’s start with the cut and paste from the standard;
Top management provides evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness by
a) communicating to all personnel the importance of meeting customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements,
b) establishing the quality policy,
c) ensuring that quality objectives are established,
d) conducting management reviews, and
e) ensuring the availability of resources.

The standard is quite explicit about this and it concerns the development, implementation and improvement of the quality management system.  And if you have a certified quality management system you will have the required evidence to demonstrate such commitment.  In fact without that evidence you shouldn’t be certified.  But don’t let our auditing fraternity make you develop specific processes or procedures around the bullet points above.  Just make sure that in a cross reference document or quality management system road map, you have direct correlations between the standard and the evidence you will present as demonstrating conformance.  Don’t get diluted or wishy washy (technical term) here folks, direct linkages need to be highlighted.

In a nutshell, develop a communication plan and submit it to management review or steering committee during the development and implementation of your qms.  Refer to the quality policy, the goals and objectives toward quality.  Reviewing each during management review and of course, make sure you have the right resources to achieve each.  Notice anything special about this clause yet?  That’s right, they are each mirrored / cross referenced in the body of the standard, so if you get this clause right or the other 5 right, you should self-determine the effectiveness.  Just remember, don’t fall into the trap of cross referencing between each of these elements and then forget to do generate the required records.  A rookie mistake so be aware.

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Spinning plates

Running a small business is a bit like a juggler spinning plates on sticks.  You must keep them spinning otherwise, they will slow, eventually stop and then fall off the sticks and break.  Perhaps I should now write, it is not ‘a bit like’, I should write it is exactly like.  It is almost the perfect analogy.  In small business, in fact, in all business, there are the must do plates; product / service, sales and finance.  Sure there are a heap more, but they are generally just a sub category of these three.  Price, quality, service, cash flow, governance (ooh, that’s a touchy one) and so on.  In small business, you must do them all.  In small business, you need to attend to each in just the right measure to ensure the plate keeps spinning until you can get back to it.  Not enough and the plate breaks.  Too much and the next plate you should have been attending will stop and break.

The biggest challenge in this scenario is just how many can you spin and spin right?  Nothing is quite so distracting than a wobbly plate.  It does not add value to you or your customer.  Most determine the number of plates by trial and error.  Just make sure, that when you get the magic number stick to it.  Then, once you need another plate, you can add the need for additional resources into the plate spinning planning process and keep your plates in order.

How many plates are you spinning?

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Audit findings / issues / matters/ discrepancies

There should no surprises in an exit meeting for the quality management representative concerning what findings were found during the course of an audit.  Why?  Because your lead auditor should have kept you informed throughout the audit process.  Why?  Because, once a finding is raised no matter what the classification, the auditor should at that point receive agreement from the auditee and / or the management representative, that they have accurately discovered the finding with the supporting objective evidence.  The only time there might ever be a surprise is when the audit team collaborate their findings, they may find an adverse trend requiring the finding to be escalated.  If this happens, the lead auditor should advise the management representative immediately so that the situation can be agreed to or mitigated by providing additional evidence.

And why would they want to do any of the above?  Well it is their brief as third party auditors to find conformance and in my mind, to mitigate the severity of findings if they can.  This does not mean you get to argue the point, every point, every interpretation, it just means that once brought to your attention, you can find mutual agreement on the finding, the evidence and the severity / classification.
And how would you know that?  Your certification body should / must have published criteria around this so that you can react accordingly.  But that is another blog.

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http://john-mason-stuff.blogspot.com/

legal stuff

There is only one small paragraph within the standard that talks about legislation.  In other standards, there are whole clauses dealing with this.  But this is quality and here is the excerpt;
‘5.1 Management commitment
Top management provides evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness by
a) communicating to all personnel the importance of meeting customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements,’

So the standard just tells us we need to communicate legal stuff.  It does not provide a framework or guidance (of course you can get this from ISO 9004, but that is another blog!).  You will need to determine to what depth you investigate what your legal requirements are.  For most companies, the minimum would include; tax law, fair trading law, OHS and if you pollute, some environmental laws.  But we digress, as you should retain the services of a good corporate advisor for this this subject. 
However, we do have responsibilities to communicate (and if you are clever, review first) the organisations regulatory and statutory requirements.  We would normally do this as part of external documentation and management reviews.  How you do it is up to you and the level of risk exposure.  Not easy huh?  Just do it.

Now as an aside, when going through the certification phase of your quality management system, your auditor will keep a whether eye as they are charged with the responsibility to not ignore legal obligations.  This means whilst they will not seek legal compliance, they shut down an audit if they discover an illegal operation or environment.  Just be warned.

previous blogs;
http://johnmasonstuff.blogspot.com
http://john-mason-stuff.blogspot.com

Generalist Trap

What is your core business?  What type of business are you?  Where does 80% of your revenue come from?  The last question will probably answer the first two.  Beware of the ‘generalist trap’ (my quote).  In consulting, this is one of the easiest ways to lose focus on your core business.  You offer a service and it is taken up.  Then your client asks if you can do something else but different.  You think customer service is all about saying yes and before you know it, you have promised to deliver something that eventually will keep your client happy, but it has drained your resources and most likely will be an unprofitable process.

Unless it is in your strategic plans to include such activities in the future and it was mutually agreed to let you ‘practice’ on your client, don’t do it.  Sure the money will be nice but can you replicate it.  Can you make money on it in the future.  Did you like doing it?  And so, and so on.

Far better to say ‘no, we don’t do that’ and then maybe help them select someone who can or if time allows, develop a relationship with alternate service providers so that fees can be shared, or similar.
Focus on your ‘knitting’ and your business will soar.

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Entry Meeting

Every audit should start with one.  Why?  So that the scene, the scope, the intents can be set.

Your auditor then explains process, confirms the scope, describes reporting, categorisations of findings, confidentiality, seeks clarification of reporting styles, lunch breaks, report generation periods.  They might give an overview of their credentials or background.  They will expect at the very least the management representative attends.  However, there are some that also expect a ‘show of strength’ by having the managing director, the coo, the cfo and so on.  Perhaps for the very initial certification audit this might happen, but don’t be bullied, just have those who wish to attend, attend, the rest can hear about the meeting through phone calls or emails.

Hopefully your certification provider has provided you with a booking / audit schedule for the areas that will be audited on the day.  It will be during the entry meeting that you can discuss and negotiate times, personnel, resources, etc.

These meetings should only take the auditor 15 minutes to discuss what she needs to discuss, the rest of the time and agenda is governed by you the client.  If you have nothing to contribute, don’t and get on with the audit.

previous blogs;
http://johnmasonstuff.blogspot.com
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