The amount of interest in ISO14001 and environmental certifications continues to grow all the time. In a wholly unscientific bit of analysis, we noticed that enquiries to us about helping companies either achieve certification for the 1st time or simplify how they manage their ISO14001 processes with Mango QHSE rose over 150% from 2022, that's pret...

An ISO standard for making Tea? Surely the world has just gone mad, bureaucracy is taking over, and it's just getting a little silly now, who needs a standard for making tea? Anyone can make tea; you bang on the kettle stick a tea bag in a cup and then pour in the hot water and then the milk… Well, hold on a minute, my gran would be incredulous wit...

When I hear about companies and their zero targets it makes me shudder, I feel sorry for the people involved in the organisation knowing that they can never succeed. It doesn't matter if you call it a target or a goal, zero means zero. According to the merriam-webster dictionary, Zero is "the absence of all magnitude and quantity", in other words i...

Productivity is a fickle thing, it can drive you to make some interesting and costly decisions in the name of getting more out of your process. Organisations the world over get sucked into the belief that to improve productivity, you have to open the wallet and spend the profits (or the overdraft) to become more productive. How much are you being b...

If you missed our webinar on how ro Muliply the power of yoru quality system with the amazing Tamela Serensits from Argolytics then you are in luck, we recorded it! The whole point of the webinar was to talk about how to drive business improvement and reduce costs by multiplying the power of your Quality systems. We wanted you to see how easy TREND...

Many organisations that decide to achieve ISO14001 for Environmental Management systems already have ISO9001:2015, which is great because the two systems are very closely aligned and follow the same Higher Level Structure, which creates a harmonised approach to your management systems. What this means then is that Clause 4 of ISO 14001 is going to ...

Throughout the whole AS9100D standard, risk-based thinking is an important thread. In clause 6.1 you are required to look at the risks (and opportunities) linked to the quality management system of the organisation, now AS9100D wants you to focus on even further. The whole point of the 5 points in clause 8.1.1 of AS9100 is to get you to understand ...

Every standard has a requirement that you understand and meet your legal, statutory, regulatory, or contractual obligations. Organisations should have a register to manage these things where you can list out what the requirement is and how you meet that requirement. It shouldn't need a standard to tell you need to meet your obligations, but for som...

We've hit the final quarter of the calendar year, and now is probably a good time to talk about the very best place you can spend a bit of your time. Yes, you need to keep delivering for your clients and finding more and taking care of day-to-day business, but you also need to take a step back and get rid of some zombies! Every organisation has the...

According to Wikipedia, business continuity is defined as "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident" and the business continuity planning is the planning work that goes into the systems and processes you need to put in place to account for tho...

One of the challenges with quality management is building systems and processes that are simple enough for people to use, and want to use, but be robust enough to give you what you need to achieve. As I've talked about before, we spend a lot of time with clients helping them simplify their systems, people will use a simple system every day of the w...

If you think about the first 7 clauses of the AS9100 REV D as building the framework of your Quality Management System, then section 8 - Operation is very much about putting some substance on that framework and as a result it's quite in depth in its requirements. Section 8.1 - Operational Planning and Control, that we will discuss here, gives the r...

Beware the HiPPO! It sounds like something out of the latest blockbuster superhero or horror film doesn't it, a dire warning to the hero about the danger the HiPPO poses with the expectation that the hero, at some point, will have to face the HiPPO and survive. Encountering a HiPPO can range from being terrifying too hilarious to, well, depressing....

When we are talking to our clients about steps, they can be taking to improve their management system is stressing the need to capture any incidents that have occurred and improvements that they have made. Rather than thinking about these things as negatives because something was not right, and it created an incident or needed improvement, we help ...

Clause 7.5 - Documented Information within the AS9100 REV D standard highlights what is required when creating and controlling documentation that is required to support your Quality Management System for Aviation, Space, and Defence Organisations. The requirements for how you manage and control your documented information have changed since technol...

Like many of the ISO standards, ISO27001 for information security management systems needs you to have a relationship with your supplier. That relationship, of course, should be one of mutual benefit and respect. What Annex clause A15 does however, is set up the requirements for implementing some targets in terms of information security requirement...

I always remember the 1st time I helped implement 5S into a factory. 5S (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise and Sustain) is one of the many 'tools' used by organisations when moving to lean thinking. The driving force was actually from the maintenance department at the time rather than operations, which still surprises some people. People stil...

For many organisations having any form of information security system is new, and that can make it a little challenging. It means that you are having to graft your new systems onto what you already have, which is tricky. However, there will come a point that the next system you need isn't one you had before you system, its new and so the very best ...