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 that a good quality management system improves your processes, are you then reluctant to include all company processes in this system? Why would most companies barely include sales on any quality initiatives? If and only if you apply the same ISO and quality concepts to the entire Sales process, inside and outside sales, you stand to see significant improvements.

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 costs? Our sales don’t seem to be significantly affected by our certification anymore, and our improvements seem to be stagnated. So what else can ISO and other quality programs do for us? Boy oh boy, if you could only let top management cover themselves in Continual Improvement, would you only know the true benefits that ISO and other quality programs can bring.

Not complex at all. Basically the KISS principle applies to document numbering as well as document headers and footers. Think about it. When you are reading a document, whether it is a procedure or a record, you are most interested on the contents of the document and the quality of it, rather than how long the document number is or whether the President of the company signed and reviewed the document. Is that allowed by ISO? Well, let’s look at the actual requirements of the standard and figure out what we need to do to add value and reduce pain.

When you think about equipment that is used for measuring and test activities, you think about important equipment that is used to pass/fail product but may not necessarily find correlation with suppliers. However this very equipment – whether is calibrated in-house or off-site - does involve a supply chain one way or the other and therefore adherence to suppliers and supply-chain requirements is imperative.

This article was published by Quality Digest on 10/19/2009.

If you have ever found equipment that is out of calibration, then you know it is not something to take lightly. Whether you manufacture children’s toys or automobile tires, you know that the implications and ramifications of the decisions you make, can be devastating for your company. Although the requirements from the ISO 9001 standard in regards to equipment found out of calibration are simple and succinct, make no mistake that this is not something to take for granted. If you ensure that the processes for handling non-conforming equipment is in place and if you take into considerations the steps provided below, you will be ready to handle and perhaps be able to avoid out-of calibration conditions.

This article was published by Quality Digest on 10/05/2009.

This article was published on the November 2009 edition of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)'s Standard and Tools Newsletter.

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 raise an alarm flag that your preventive action is weak. So how can a company boost the number of preventive actions and increase awareness in problem prevention and continual improvement?