We put the call out to our Newsletter readers, on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for questions. Questions that people are struggling with around ISO, Lean or leadership that they wanted help with and we got some fantastic responses that we have loved reading through and thinking about how we can help. We can't answer everything but we'll do our bes...

AS9100 REV D Section 7, Support, is probably a little bit more detailed than the clause in rev C, and that's a good thing. Clause 7.1 – Resources especially, has a chunk more detail than the previous version. Resources required around your Quality Management System have always been a bit poorly defined in the past and varied wildly, now, however, t...

We put the call out to our Newsletter readers, on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for questions. Questions that people are struggling with around ISO, Lean or leadership that they wanted help with and we got some fantastic responses that we have loved reading through and thinking about how we can help. We can't answer everything but we'll do our bes...

We put the call out to our Newsletter readers, on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for questions. Questions that people are struggling with around ISO, Lean or leadership that they wanted help with and we got some fantastic responses that we have loved reading through and thinking about how we can help. We can't answer everything but we'll do our bes...

It's probably fair to say that when people think about information security and ISO27001 they rightly think about passwords, access control and who can see what information. Your Information Security Management System (ISMS) is clearly more than that, but it is a very important part and you do need to spend a large part of your time getting the req...

It is important to remember that your AS9100D Quality Management System (QMS) is a living and evolving system. That means that over time you and your team will make changes to the system either because of a new idea, a client requirement, a business change, a new system, new staff or as a result of a management review of a process, the list of reas...

In 1926 Henry Ford wrote the book Today and Tomorrow. It's a fascinating book and it's littered with insights that wouldn't be out of play in any modern lean discussion, little wonder since Taiichi Ohno took a lot of inspiration from what Ford did originally as part of a trip to the US, where he was also taken with the way US supermarkets operated ...

Compliance systems can be a pain, all that extra work, the paperwork, the audits, the forms, and reviews. The time that you waste chasing people up to do things they don't feel they should do and of course, getting ready for the big audit from the customer or the certification body when you could be doing your real work right? Chances are if you or...

Often companies when you start talking about asset management you find that companies don't really have a proper asset list, sure they may have a list of capitalised items they have bought that have been added to the 'asset list' but all that is, in reality, is just a set up in the finance ledger to capture depreciation – that's not an asset list. ...

The AS9100 rev D standard for Quality Management Systems for Aviation, Space and Defence organisation's Clause 6.2 is all about setting your quality objectives for the organisation. It is another of the sections which is a "shall" i.e. you must do this to comply with the standard. Interestingly this clause doesn't say "Top Management" will … it say...

Creating flow in your operation is the ideal state if you want to have a lean process. Anything that stops you flowing product (or services) from start to finish in your organisation is something you want to eliminate, if you can't eliminate it completely then you need to minimise it. It is fair to say that in general terms anything that stops your...

One of the things that happen when organisation start to build towards implementing their ISO management systems is that they look at the standard and try to figure out where to start. As people tend to do, they move towards the familiar, the bits they believe they know what to do and start there. They implement non-conformance processes, or risk p...

When organisations think about Information Security and what things need to be in place to achieve their ISO27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) certifications for some reason they mostly forget about the Human Resources function. That is a little strange when you think about it, your relationship with employees and contractors for t...

As we have mentioned before AS9100 REV D is very much focused on understanding the Risks in your Quality Management System and to your organisation plus how you will handle them. It makes sense, working in the aviation, space and defence industries is risky and the products that come out of those industries are perhaps the some of the highest risk ...

What would you do if one day your accountant walked in and said Ok boss, we have no money and the bank is going to have to step in. They are going to keep us afloat and let us trade out of the problem, but we need to improve what we do. They want us to increase our productivity, reduce our money tied up in WIP & stock, oh, and they will not let...

The interesting thing about the leadership clause of any standard is that it is one many organisation do not pay enough attention to. It tends to be an area where people still believe it is the quality or the safety or the compliance manager's role and so the senior management team take a hands-off approach leaving things to the person they have ha...

Clause A6, Organisation of Information Security, of the ISO 27001 is about providing guidance on the management framework of your Information Security Management System (ISMS). Clause A6 is split into two sections, A6.1 covers the Internal Organisation while clause A6.1 covers Mobile Devices and Teleworking (remote working) which is particularly on...

The great thing about lean is that there is always more to learn, there is always improvement in the thinking, the methodologies, the approaches, and the tools that get used. However, the underlying idea never changes, people somehow manage to complicate it when trying to explain what lean is and that perhaps is one of the things that make people t...