The Mango Minute  The Mango Minute is a serious of video's that will take you through elements of the Mango QHSE software which is the perfect platform to manage all of your compliance requirements including Quality, Health & Safety and Environmental Management. and give you some hints on using the system in your organisation more effectiv...

When people start out on the journey for ISO27001 sometimes they can forget to stop and really think about the design of their Information Security Management System (ISMS), eventually it catches up with them and it happens. One factor in that design that most seem to gloss over however is the Values that the system is based around and that's what ...

I attended a client's monthly management meeting the other week and it was interesting to say the least. The session was scheduled for an hour (so in my head I'm thinking that's a bit short) and it was to cover operational performance and a new product they were designing for a new market they were looking to enter. I'd asked in advance why they we...

The Mango Minute  The Mango Minute is a serious of video's that will take you through elements of the mango QHSE software and give you some hints on using the system in your organisation more effectively to cover a wide range of areas. Using Mango QHSE inside Microsoft Teams  Mango QHSE is the perfect platform to manage all of your compli...

I was at a meeting the other week when one of those annoying corporate sound bites was used to shut someone down, you know the ones that seem to sound right but when you stop and think about it a little they make zero sense at all. We've all heard and probably, unfortunately, used them from time to time but this one is one of the dumbest ones I can...

The Mango Minute  The Mango Minute is a serious of video's that will take you through elements of the mango QHSE software and give you some hints on using the system in your organisation more effectively to cover a wide range of areas. Keeping Track of your Facilities Management Tasks  Did you know that you can manage all of your Faciliti...

Organisations talk about their values, they frame them and put them on their walls, but do they really pay much attention to them? Frequent readers of the blog know that I have a passion about organisational culture, it's the one single true advantage your organisation has over any other so having a true set of values that you can build your cultur...

The Mango Minute  The Mango Minute is a serious of video's that will take you through elements of the mango QHSE software and give you some hints on using the system in your organisation more effectively to cover a wide range of areas. Using Mango QHSE inside Microsoft Teams  Mango QHSE is the perfect platform to manage all of your compli...

Let's face it when it comes to any form of system, process or way of working the one sure that that will kill it quickly and drive staff morale into the gutter is lack of management commitment. We spoke about the need for this in depth when we looked at the requirements of ISO9001:2015 for Quality Management Systems and it's exactly the same requir...

 When it comes to changing or improving things they say it's always easier to critique an idea or a draft of something than start with a blank sheet of paper, you never really get to start with a blank sheet anyway, there's always something that's set in stone, but what if there wasn't? What if you could genuinely start with a completely blank...

Ever wonder why processes and systems breakdown in your organisation? The answer is normally pretty simple and comes back to just one word, Responsibility. If you don't assign responsibility to someone to get a task done or own a process, then guess what it'll fall over. All processes and systems left unattended eventually just fall over, it's call...

I spend a lot of time talking to people about lean and ISO (International Standards Organisation) systems, especially ISO9001. People sometimes think that it's a strange mix of things but when you peel back the surface of ISO9001 what you have is a standard build around 2 things, understanding risk and the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) or if you are ...

I often ask people I'm working with, "if you want to fix something, to improve it, then what is the 1st thing you have to have in order to be able to do that?" I get all sorts of answers usually most of these resulting of spending a lot of money, which seems to be the default approach – there's a problem lets spend money. The real answer is actuall...

My mum used to make the best chicken and veg soup, she'd boil up a chicken to create the stock, then remove it and add the chicken meat back, then she would add Split Peas, Pearl Barley, Lentils, Carrots, Peas, Onion and lastly some salt for seasoning. It was the same process every time, they were added in the same order, the same weights were used...

When you parked your car this morning did you lock it and put valuables in the boot, so they don't get stolen? What about when you left your house, I bet that was locked up, windows closed, oven and cooker off so as not to burn the place down. You don't want come home and find that your house is empty of all your possessions, that your family photo...

When you make the decision to really look at information security there are a number of options available to you in terms of how to do it and what standards to follow - NIST, COBIT, ISA, CIS or ISO. The great thing about ISO27001 for Information Security is that it really does cover all the bases and like the updates to ISO9001, 14001, 45001, ISO 2...

I get asked pretty much every week what Lean is, what's its purpose, how can it possibly help my organisation, we don't make cars, or volume or even, we don't make anything – we are a service organisation! From time to time I also get told "we don't want lean here – we don't want to see people losing their jobs". I've even had the whole 6 sigma vs ...

"If you want to cut someone's hair, they need to be in the room". I heard that phrase a while ago and it's continued to bounce round my brain nonstop since then because frankly it's brilliant. If you want to understand leadership, engagement and one of the most fundamental tenants of lean, respect for people, then that's the phrase, that I think, w...

When Taiichi Ohno started the journey that was to revolutionise not just Toyota but the manufacturing world, which has now spread across all organisations including services and even healthcare and construction. Ohno started with good old-fashioned Industrial Engineering, that was his job. Today universally it's referred to as lean, but at its core...

Suppose you are sitting in your home, reading your favourite book when there's a bit of a bang and the light above you goes out. Now you are sitting there trying to read in the dark, what do you do? Obviously, there are options, you can just get up and move to somewhere that has a working light, you could go to the cupboard you keep the spare bulbs...

When I talk with clients undertaking their lean journey about heading towards one-piece flow in their processes, they tend to be slightly nervous. There are lots of discussions about how that will make things more expensive (it doesn't) and that it will slow things down (it won't) but mostly the thing I get is, well that may work in some places but...

We launched a 30 second survey a few weeks back to ask the main question, What is your biggest challenge in gaining engagement in your Continuous Improvement Programs? and the results are in. We had a great response with just over 180 people adding their input to the question and a big thank you to those who did. In the survey we asked a couple of ...

I've never understood how being busy, having a full calendar somehow became a badge of honour, I'm so important that there is no time, it wouldn't surprise me to hear someone say they were actually booked 25hrs in one day! It's a madness that seems to be getting to epidemic levels. What does your calendar look like? Is it full of really important m...

Work groups are characterized by the least amount of interdependence. They are based on organizational or managerial hierarchy. Work groups may meet periodically to hear and share information. Teams are highly interdependent - they plan work, solve problems, make decisions, and review progress in service of a specific project. Team members need one...

Most people will by now have heard of the MVP, the Minimum Viable Product. It's the smallest functioning version of what you want to build or ultimately deliver to your customer but perhaps with limited features, sometimes it's a part of it, sometimes it's a dummy version with someone behind the curtain pulling the strings. Ultimately though it's p...

Episode 8 - Top Tips for Implementing 5s  Last month we got another chance to guest on the fantastic new podcast The Quest to QHSE where we joined host Craig Thornton to talk about 5s and gave our top tips for implementing it and some tips on what not to do as well! You may be wondering what 5s has to do with your QHSE (Quality Health & Sa...

Yesterday I was sitting with my daughter in a coffee shop as we shuffled between school and one of her many extracurricular activities, she is 10 so there are a lot of activities as she tests out the various options for things to do, refines it, and then, hopefully finally settles on a few as she gets a little older to focus on. I explain it to fri...

Episode 6  I was really delighted to participate in episode 6 of The Quest to QHSE Podcast with Craig where we got together and talked about how to use lean improvements to save money, something that's dear to my heart, not just because I'm a Scotsman but because it makes great sense for your organsiaiton. So how does that fit with QHSE? well ...

When we promote people to their first management or leadership position it's very rare that we have actually trained them in advance for that position, it's equally rare that we train them at all for the new position there are in. Almost universally we promote people who were really good at the role they are in, they were a great accountant or engi...

As questions about lean go, how to measure the success of a lean program or 'how lean' is an organisation seems to be getting an increasing amount of air time in meetings, in part, it's about how do we know where we are in the journey, but it's also around return on investment. The board, for example, wants to know what they are actually getting fo...

The other week I had a really interesting discussion over a coffee with potential client. They had been working internally to find a way to really drive and push a continuous improvement culture into their organisation and were looking for someone to help out. We talked about what their current challenges were and what they want to achieve, they sa...

When organisations start thinking about information management and the security of that information they automatically look towards their IT and typically the CIO or IT Manager gets the call and told to 'secure it', because it's that simple right? Wrong! And wrong in a number of ways. Information is all around Firstly, it's important to not think a...

It's a bit of a sitcom stable, the main character comes out with a comment or a put down and then gasps, the hand goes to their mouth and then they utter that terrible phrase... Oh no! I sound like my Mum! (or Dad as the case may be), the audience laughs, and our lead character looks both stunned and a little worried, are they in fact turning into ...

Here is a question I ask a lot, when I say a lot, I mean at least daily! It's one of my favourite questions when talking with clients and for myself as well! It's one of those questions that really should be one of your key questions as well, are you ready for it because it really is going to change your life, I know sounds like hype right? it's no...

One of the 5 fundamental principles of lean is to obtain flow, find a way that your product or service flows seamlessly from the start of your process to your client and do this as fast as is practicable to maintain a high-quality product or service. There are always many ways to do this and it will vary from organisation to organisation since ever...

If you are a long-term reader of our blog you will know that one of the things that we continually talk about is your organisational values and how you reflect these in everyday operations, how you live those values. So, what has this got to do with Quality? Well, let me ask you how many times do you see Quality in an organisations value list? Thei...

Information has always been a premium resource, it's always been something that has been controlled and guarded to ensure that those who shouldn't have it, don't. If you look back through the ages it's always been there, the Romans had Cursus publicus - which was their courier system, much like today's couriers these were people entr...

I get asked all the time what is the point of lean? Why would you 'do lean'? It's actually a pretty common question and there are many many answers that people give when they are asked about it. The problem is, I think, that people forget the real reason for introducing lean to an organisation, the reason it exists in the first place, why Toyota cr...

It was Dan's idea, it can't be wrong, can it? Dan hired that person, they must be Ok, it's everyone else that just need time to adjust. Dan's the leader, so must know all of the answers, doesn't he? Let's be honest, it's possible that Dan is in fact always correct and infallible, it is however unlikely. Before we go on What I if told You that you r...

Unfortunately, Most continuous improvement programs fail, either completely or they fail to live up tot eh hype and expectations that are set up front for them The reason for this is that they are focusing only on delivering the "big bang", they make a big song and dance about this new latest thing and hope that it'll work, like the noise of t...

Understanding exactly what you need to do in order to achieve ISO9001:2015 can be a bit of a challenge. Sometimes the language in the standard can be a little, well, unclear. Don't get me wrong the 2015 version of the ISO9001 standard is vastly improved over the previous versions of the standard but unless you are familiar with ISO standards a...

When an organisation makes the decision that they need to achieve the ISO9001:2015 certification there are normally a number of factors that influence the decision, because let's face it, it's not a small decision, it's one that really needs to be considered carefully since you are about to fundamentally change how your organisation functions. The ...

We all have habits; they build up over time and whether we like them or not form a large part of who we are and how we go about doing things. Before we leave the house, we check our pockets for the keys and wallet, and we know where the keys are because out of habit, we put them in the same place when we come in, the bowl by the phone or the hook a...

Last week I was involved in a conversation with a person I met at a networking event where we were discussing problems they were having at their workplace with people not following processes. They asked me what I thought they should do to get people to follow the processes and stem the flow of issues. "How Do I get these people to just do what they...

One of the great things about doing online surveys is that you can get completely honest feedback from people about virtually anything. One of the downsides of course of doing surveys is that you have to collate the data afterwards which normally means figuring out how to download it from the survey system and then get it into a spreadsheet. Once t...

You have done it, the ISO9001:2015 certificate is on the wall and all that hard work of building a Quality Management System that really delivers for your organisation is behind you, so why are we talking about a journey?   Celebrate Firstly, it is important to stop for a moment and celebrate what you and the team have achieved. It says a lot ...

Congratulations, you have got to the point where it is time for the stage 2 audit of your new ISO9001:2015 certification audit of your Quality Management System. You have spent many hours training all of your team on what the requirements are for running the organisation within your new system, people know where to find things, they are updati...

How do you measure success? Is it money? Is it fame or influence is it the ability to do what ever you want or is it something else? I'd like to argue that it is none of these, you may end up with one or all of these things of course, but is that really the way to think about it? When you think about family, friends, you think if the many memories ...

It's finally time, you have done all the hard yards and now it's time to actually get your new ISO9001:2015 system officially certified, so what exactly does that mean and how do you do it, there are a few steps to move through to get to that all important ISO9001:2015 certificate. In this post we will cover the 1st two steps.   Selecting a Ce...

As we have worked through all of the clauses within ISO9001 in this blog series we have highlighted a number of areas where you need a document or need to be keeping a record of things, but to be fair, it may be hard to keep track and to be honest with so many clauses it can be a little overwhelming. It's not unusual for people to believe that abso...