Up till now Section 8 of ISO9001:2015 has been really dealing with the planning of the provision of your products and services, in clause 8.5 however that changes to the actual delivery of your products and services and there is a bit to think about here, thankfully you have been working through all the previous clauses in which case this part is e...

It sounds counter intuitive doesn't it, if you want to improve your quality and your productivity it's best if you just stand still for a while. Surely you need to be running around doing things, having meetings, inspecting things, checking things, gathering lots and lots of data, maybe even a white board session with your best Ishikawa Diagram (fi...

How many times have you had issues with your suppliers or contractors and the root cause of that issue turned out to be that they just didn't have the right information or clear information from your organisation? It happens more often than people care to admit yet there is no need for this to happen if you actually take a bit of time and think abo...

I was talking to someone the other day about gardening in their organisation, I must admit it got a bit of a "are you mad" look which was fair. However, when you think about it there are similarities. After all as a leader, your role is to grow your people so let's think about it for a moment or two.  Room To Grow  Plants need room to gro...

How often have you left a meeting feeling sure that everyone was on the same page, you were all clear about what was agreed, who was responsible for what and when it was to be done only for all to fall apart 20 minutes after the meeting? Sadly, it's not unusual, and it's one of the biggest areas of frustration within many organisations, leading to ...

 ISO9001:2015 Clause 8.4.2 is all about expanding on what type of controls and the extent that you need to manage these controls on your suppliers to ensure that they meet the necessary requirements to deliver you good products or services in line with your requirements and that their processes don't adversely impact your products or services....

ISO9001:2015 takes a fairly decent step forward in how it handles or rather requires you to handle your Supplier Management within your Quality Management System. It used to be that you just needed a list of your suppliers and to be honest not too much else, it's changed a bit from that. Clause 8.4 is all about the new requirements on organisations...

I have a question when I work with teams about how long it would take them to save at least $20,000 in their organisation, normally this results in answers of killing meetings or big bang events. When people think of lean improvements it tends conjure thoughts about big bang events that transform the organisation over a short period of time which i...

How do you set the price of your products? It seems like a simple question yet like everything there are multiple answers to this question depending on which organisation you ask or indeed if you ask the accountant, the engineer, the marketing guy or the sales lady. As an engineer, I know that the sales team always want the lowest price f...

How do you feel when you hit the situation when you have to say those dreaded words... "I Don't Know"? and why are they dreaded words in the first place, what makes it hard for some to say "I Don't Know" while others seem to manage it quite well?Don't get me wrong if you are saying "I don't know" every day while doing your job and it's about things...

ISO9001:2015 clause 8.3.5 Design and Development Outputs can sometimes cause confusion on it's purpose. It is not about the actual product that is being designed but about the outcome of the design process, a design drawing or CAD model for example. Requirements of the Design & Development Output Clause   The aim of this section is to ensu...

Start talking about lean and almost everyone starts thinking about waste elimination, which is good, mostly. You see what they are usually talking about is removing non-value-added tasks and activities which is certainly important and if that's all you did you would most certainly move forward. From a lean perspective we need to think about it...

Think about clause 8.3.4 Design and Development Controls within ISO9001:2015 as the Check section of the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) loop. In earlier clauses of section 8.3 – (Design & Development of Products & Services) the organisation was required to carry out some detailed design & development planning and to look at the assorted input...

You have done all the hard work, you have figured out the purpose of your organisation, you have a vision for the future and are clear about your mission and you have developed your three sets of values (permission to play, core & aspirational) and they are all great values! Since everyone is aware these things and you talk about your values al...

In this second part of the discussion about ISO9001:2015 Section 8.3 we are going to look at section 8.3.3 of ISO9001:2015 which is all about the Design & Development Inputs to your product or service. The aim of this clause is simple, lets make sure you have considered everything you need to when designing your product or service  8.3.3 D...

Every organisation has challenges and areas where they need to improve, even the very best of them. The challenge is always figuring out what to work on and what not to work on or putting it in another way what are the Good things to work on and what are the Great things to work on. The aim is to only work on the great things rather than just work ...

ISO9001:2015 Clause 8.3 is all about how your organisation carries out it's design and development of products and services. Now obviously if you do not actually carry out any design or development work then this section is not applicable to you and you are allowed to exclude it from your ISO9001:2015 system, however your request for exclusion will...

It's been a busy time of it of late balancing commitments at work and at home. Between on-boarding some really exciting new clients, working with our existing clients on some really interesting challenges, of course the obligatory paperwork elements and developing a great new Lean Administration workshop as well it's all go. Then of course there is...