We are Just a Service Company, Why Do They Need Us to be ISO 9001 Certified?
Are you a service provider selling project management services, engineering or IT services? Have you been asked more than once whether you are ISO 9001 certified and wonder what is all that about? Before you tell your prospective client they have an error on their forms, see why more and more organizations are demanding their …
Combining ISO 9001 with C-TPAT Requirements: A Simple Approach to Building an Integrated Quality Management System
Sweet Challenge I was called to a prospective client to help them implement ISO 9001. They seemed very interested at improving their processes in order to increase their quality and revenues. After contract negotiations, we were given the green light and quickly began process mapping the company’s main functions. As we moved from process mapping …
What’s the Difference? Series: ISO Goals vs. Targets vs. Objectives vs. KPI’s vs. Metrics
A Game of Words As an auditor I always ask employees to tell me whether they are familiar with the company Quality Objectives or not. Obviously I may not ask that as a straight question but rather something like this: How do you know if you are doing a good job? Has your company established …
Continual Improvement… It’s Not So Easy, a Caveman Could Not Do It!
When I started my career nearly 20 years ago, the world was a little different. People were still smoking in the workplace, Dilbert was in everybody’s desk and the quality program of the month was the joke du jour. Many things have changed since then for the goodness of the world and the quality of …
Mayday, Mayday…Where Did My Laptop Go?! Nine Basic Information Security Controls Any Company Should Implement
I’m sure you’ve heard of laptops being stolen, but have you heard of laptops being swapped? Lost or stolen laptops and the data they carry are just one of the disasters that may ail you or your organization one day. In reality, there are many more security incidents that can affect the security of your …
ISO and Other Quality Initiatives Can Improve Our Processes, But Can They Improve Our Sales?
When a quality management system is implemented, results are evident immediately: reduction in warranty cost, reduction in rework, reduction in scrap, higher profit margins, etc. Would you agree that ISO and other quality initiatives such as Lean, Six Sigma, 5S can significantly improve any company’s processes -if requirements are correctly implemented? Why, if you know …
When Top Management Believes, Breakthroughs Can Happen
Ok, so we’ve been certified to the ISO 9001 standard for the longest. Yes our processes are better, we have gotten new customers over the years because of the certification, and yes we track our objectives and customer satisfaction. But is there anything else left to be extracted out of our program and its recurrent …
How to Boost Your Preventive Action Program
One difficult task of many companies is the ability to instill in its employees the mindset of error or problem prevention in order to prevent problems or mistakes from happening and to improve the processes in place. This consequently translates into a low to none ratio of preventive actions against corrective actions issued which may …
Twenty Two Years After the Standard’s Inception, Why are There Companies Still Not ISO 9001 Certified?
Even after many years of hearing the word ISO 9000 and seeing many organizations get ISO certified, there are still companies who are skeptical when it comes to registering for ISO 9001 certification. For some, a misconception on the objectives of the ISO 9001 standard or the lack of knowledge may steer them off this …
Electronic Systems Do Work! Let Your Corrective and Preventive Action System Work for You
I still remember it, it was 1997 and the company had just hang a new projector from the ceiling. As with every new tool, I jumped on the bandwagon and switched from slides to using the PC and projector to show my presentation. Unfortunately, Murphy was in the meeting too and my presentation along with…
