How Not to Fail at ISO9001–Dear Production Manager

Posted on Nov 6, 2022, jshell55

Dear Production Manager: Sorry about all of the confusion around the ISO9001 stuff. You know it’s for your own good, right? I am trying to tell you how not to fail at ISO9001.

You’re being asked by your conscientious ISO coordinator to put some time and effort into some system of documentation that you don’t think you need.

The fact is, you might be right. Your process might be simple enough, and repeatable enough that when you train someone new, they know what to do within a few minutes of them being on the job. Stack the boxes. Screw in the little screws. Put it into the box. If the QA department says it is okay, haul it out on your pre-inspected forklift and go on to the next thing.

You Might Need the Control

Or, it is possible that you are wrong. Your job needs to be done in a certain way, and in a certain order. The ISO standard calls this “controlled conditions.” One of the methods of how not to fail at ISO9001 is to focus on controlled conditions. There might be inspection steps that need to be checked by someone who knows the difference between “right” and “wrong”. There might be such a thing as a defective part, and if there is, you need a clearly communicated way to keep it from being shipped.

It requires a little knowledge on your part to know the difference.

In some places, there are more ways to screw up production than you can imagine. I have been in the places that make missiles, and dynamite, and Tennessee Whiskey. Do you want to share stories about the importance of people doing things right? We can do that at some point, but for now, we have a little work to do.

Your Supervisors

Video Link

If you’re lucky, and have a layer of supervisors under you, it would be a good idea to know whether or not they are really “super.” I made a video on this topic a few years ago, which should get a laugh out of you. We can get more into this later, but the fact is, the success or failure of your ISO deployment will ride largely on their hairy backs.

The reality of this is that most of the actual employees, at the employee level, will see this as what it is, namely a way to put a little structure into the system. Hopefully your top manager is on board with us too. So there is a gooey center of organization in the middle who are the implementers, and a lot depends on them. Here’s a hint: If you think this is important, so will they.

How Not to Fail at ISO9001: The Business Rationale

I suppose in a way, the business rationale for you in this is similar to your engineers, namely that at some point in the day, you have to be able to prove you did your job right. This might be elatively simple at your place, or it might be life-endangering.

Here is one thing I do know, which is that your system of work instructions, and in-process testing, and control of non conforming material might, conceivably, end up in front of a jury at some point. You want to be sure that, within the risk level of your business, you have evidence that you did your job properly, your employees were trained, any defective material was dealt with properly, and that you didn’t let anything dangerous out into the world.

Well I know you have a hard job, and I know you’re ready to get back to it.

Give this some thought, and try to be cooperative. You’re doing this for a reason.

Jim

PS: Hey, did you know that I do some contact auditing and problem solving training? Here’s a link.