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ISO9000: Procedures

By Ed Bones

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 22Oct2008 Word count: 832 Viewed: 149 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Developing and improving a management system such as that defined by ISO9001 is often an onerous task simply because the original ground work - defining and establishing the system, was poorly managed.

Because the present version of the Standard was generated with the intention of being universally applicable, specific instructions regarding the construction and documentation were either removed or simplified to maximize the acceptability of the Standard to the widest possible audience. This particularly applies to the requirement for documentation. An initial reading of the Standard suggests that only six procedural requirements need to be documented - what happens to other system definitions is not clear from this reading. However, in section 4.1 (General requirements) the situation is clarified. "The organization shall establish, document, implement and maintain..........". Leaving no doubt of the requirement to have documents - in whatever form, that define the system requirements and performance.

If we accept the need to document in some manner the management system - and if we don't how can it be said that the system exists in an operable form - the question of HOW the system is documented arises. By this I don't mean the form of its existence but the format and detail of the documentation package. Historically organisations seeking to comply and to attain a certification status, for ISO9001 standards were advised to document their system by 'saying what you do, and doing what you say'. Inevitably this led to document packages that were unwieldy and inoperable. This situation being made worse by the authors of the system documents (Procedures) being recruited from groups with no real understanding of the processes being documented. They wrote what they thought should happen. Unfortunately this is not simply a historic situation - it continues today. Regardless of who is responsible for preparing management system procedures, there is an inbuilt tendency to over state the obvious and to ignore the needs of the individual user.

In preparing a set of documents that define and control the manner in which people and tasks interact, there are two considerations that should not be ignored, and to ignore either will lead to the development of a management system that is in every respect unsatisfactory. The two key considerations are the needs of the business managers and the nature of the staff who will be required to operate within the system being documented.

Management has a set of needs, only one of which is the ISO9001 compliance issue. It is for management to ensure these needs are defined and understood by all. The needs of the staff employed by the company are conditioned by the complexity of the work and the training & experience of that staff group. In most organisations there exists a system of staff appraisal and development, which if robustly implemented, should ensure adequate skills being available for each task undertaken. Other than in areas of high risk, this should lead to the system procedural documents being focused on what is to be achieved rather than on 'how to' matters. Remember, the management system will already contain all that is required to produce the company's product or service; these procedures are concerned with the additional matters relating to the Standard. At the simplest level, it would not be seriously suggested that a procedure is necessary to explain to a typist how the typing machine is to be operated. It might well be necessary to define the manner in which a document is presented, leaving said typist to achieve that objective. This fully satisfies the requirement in the Standard to establish and define the manner in which management control is defined and effected. In the previous example the achievement of a consistent standard of document production arises from the combination of skills, training and experience combined with a clear statement of a performance requirement in the Procedure Document.

The fundamental weakness of many - even most - management systems designed to achieve ISO Standard compliance is their failure to recognize the skills and experience of the individual.

From time to time it is necessary to define closely the manner in which a piece of work is undertaken. This definition should never be included in the Procedure. Supplementary material should be produced by those competent to identify a specific need for further instructions - inevitably those responsible for the completion of the work, and it is these who should produce and control these 'work statements', removing them as they become unnecessary.

The consequence of documenting a management system in this manner is a system that is smaller, more effective, and less prone to adverse comment by those whose job is management system audit. A system whose documents define only the achievement requirement - the process output - really has only one measurable aspect, but has the advantage of maximizing staff ingenuity and aptitude in the resolution of daily operational difficulties.

In such organisations there is no place for nit-picking or pedantry, as all are focused on the achievement of agreed objectives, rather than a fruitless debate on working methods.

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