In any discussion of quality management systems and practice, there eventually arises the question of 'quality costs'. It is distinctly pass� to be outside such a conversation, as everyone is expected to have a view, and to be involved in the measureme...

Any outside audit of a business will at some point bring up the problem of Document Control. Only a few aspects of system conformity create such trouble as this to the auditor and auditee. A lot of the difficulty comes from the tendency to think of docum...

Internal audit has been a requirement of ISO9001 since its inception, and was inherited from the line of standards that preceded the ISO document. For many organisations internal audit is seen simply as a requirement, something to be undertaken, a cost o...

An individual doesn't need to be observing for more than ten or fifteen years to see the obvious rise and fall of many management schemes (some say fads) meant to reform the world, or at the very minimum the structured world of the organization that you f...

The individuals dealing with management system development and improvement are often asked about the relative merits of independent as opposed to combined systems for these two standards - and other possibilities as well. Staying away from the trap of ...

Whatever the business in question, describing and knowing business processes is essential to improving these processes - thereby improving business performance. Process Mapping is necessary for anyone who wants to be clear on their business, and in every ...

The frequently discussed criterion to improve business achievement and to actualize not only an advancement but constant advancement, presupposes that some apparatus or system actually exists to measure this achievement, as measurement is a necessary cond...

Creating and building on a management system like ISO9001 is usually a difficult and time consuming task because the primary foundation work - clarifying and establishing the system, was poorly governed. Because the present version of the Standard was ...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones Wherever the ISO9001 Standard is talked over, the one particular item will be that of Improvement. Most often considered is the Continual Improvement requirement of the ISO Standard (section 8) or feasible improvements to th...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones Following the development of a management system for Quality - e.g. ISO9001' is the need to maintain and improve the performance of such a system. ISO 9001 in its current form requires the organisation to continually improve...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones There is an increasing emphasis on the management of environmental factors affecting our personal lives, our community and the world at large. As individuals, it is difficult to see how our contribution can have any effect o...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones In an attempt to define an effective set of management processes, ISO 9001:2000 has a section devoted to the management of the contract process. Earlier versions of the Standard (e.g. ISO9001:1994) defined this activity as ...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones In every human endeavour there is an element of risk; personal, project or financial, or a combination of them all. The task of the responsible individual is to identify the risk and act accordingly. We all do these 'risky' ...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones A familier perception of the requirement 'continual improvement' contained within the ISO9001 Standard (8.5.1) is that in some way it associates to an improvement of product or service. Some more stern thought might reveal t...

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones This ISO Standard contains an element (8) intended to encompass a range of features which together support a mechanism to improve the performance of the management system. Internal audit forms part of this set, but only a pa...