When to Implement the ISO 9001 Regulation in your Company

por Antonio Alvarez Antonio Alvarez | Dec 25, 2021 12:58:46 PM

Within a company, what happens as an everyday thing and is seen "normal", is usually what won't let the company move forward.

Reasons to implement ISO 9001 Casa Sauza

When I graduated as a Chemical Engineer, I was far from imagining that the real challenges of the industry are not studied in science books, nor they are taught by the teachers, who did indeed shared their knowledge and wisdom with us. In 1988, on my first day of work in this industry, I was eager to apply all of those formulas and algorithms learned in the classroom. I was soon informed about my functions and the objectives I had to achieve however, over time I realized that the valuable contributions that one can make, are in those small improvements where everything is considered "normal".

Workshop myopia in the managers reports

The company counts on a great team, everybody is working on something, there is not a single minute left to relax. It is very common for the information to flow from the floor staff to the supervisors. The latter analyze the information in order to discuss it during the department meeting. The area manager listens to their work team and relates all the information received with the current objectives that have been established by the company's direction. The team is working according to the everyday needs.

Let's take a look at the reports of the supervisors. It's quite common to find that the production was interrupted. This can be caused by several things: a piece of the equipment has been damaged, the machine is delivering a defective product, the warehouse did not hand the materials over to the production team, the operator suffered an accident so he ended up in the hospital, the electric power was interrupted, etc ... This happens all the time! the operator immediately notifies the supervisor who shows up right away, analyzes the situation, makes a quick decision and, the quality, maintenance, or any other teams, act accordingly by implementing different measures...what a great team! The manager has all the information needed to present it to the direction and everything that happened is thus, justified.

Workshop myopia during the supervision of work areas

A production plant is never as safe, clean and organized as when the owners or any other important figures are expected to come and pay a visit. Or at least the path that they will follow is well planned and known beforehand, so it is not necessary to clean up thoroughly everywhere. These visitors might notice that an operator either slipped, bumped into something or stumbled yet, the also notice that the production goal is met. The corridors might be cramped with the leftovers from the previous production which has not been removed to the warehouse yet, not to mention that in some areas, some materials have just been left there for months. There might be a toolbox under some machine since the mechanic thinks he should leave it there, for it is continuously needed and why waste time in coming to get it. One might find a a package of rusted screws somewhere, which were probably left behind during the latest strike, or perhaps from an even earlier strike than that. There are holes on the wall from earlier electrical repairs, some of the equipment's parts are held on tight with a random wire: the operator carried out an improvised repair in order to avoid stopping the whole equipment.

The company is aware of all the improvements that need to be done yet, they must all wait since either there is currently no budget for it, or the priority is to keep the equipment operating to its fullest, or maybe it has not been planned what to do with the staff while the equipment is stopped for its maintenance, etc ...

Programs, campaigns and improvement activities

The company has certainly launched -several times- quality programs to improve the performance of the processes, yet these efforts usually are clouded with the passing of days.

A quality improvement program costs money, and the finance team needs to see an impact on the company's economy to justify the expense, and when it has not been the case, they take advantage of the situation and reject this kind of initiatives as much as possible. Which is understandable since it usually goes like this: The Human Resources team prepares all the arguments needed in order to present the initiative as either a requirement of the Ministry of Labor or as to simply comply with a social commitment; The production team expects an increase in the volume processed; The charm and motivation of the staff lasts some time, but then with the passing of the days, the first encouragement and motivation of the staff returns to what has been "normal" and it is all left behind.

If you notice that your company has some of the symptoms mentioned above, you see many of these thinks and consider it "normal", then the programs, campaigns and improvement activities that you have tried to implement, have not given the expected results. You do not need any more information to realize that your company needs to implement a Management System based on an ISO Standard.

What is the winning formula to implement an ISO regulation?

It could be easy to say that in order to make a quality program work for good, you just need to continuously turn the "Wheel of Management" around. Yet it is not that easy. By means of the quality programs that a company has carries out, a goal might be achieved for at least one day: Without a doubt, a great effort was needed in order to get there and those who arrived can in all justice say that it was a difficult task to achieve. However, we all know that the hard part is not getting there but to actually make it last! So here is the key to success: Once you have arrived there, mark that current state of things as the minimum acceptable situation. You then just have to document, maintain and save all the information related to the "Management Wheel".

Turning the Management Wheel around means nothing else but to carry out the cicle:

  1. Plan
  2. Do
  3. Verify/test
  4. Act on it/make decisions.

The best guidance you can get for this process is to follow the ISO standard that best adapts to your company's needs and to the management's goals. The most common one is the ISO 9001, since it includes all the requirements needed to establish a Quality Management System. Some ISO standards are:

  • ISO 22000 includes the requirements needed to establish a Food Safety Management System.
  • ISO 14001 includes the requirements needed to establish an Environmental Management System.
  • ISO 45001 includes the requirements needed to establish an Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

The success of these systems lies in the extent to which the management provides the personnel with opportunities to develop the competencies they need in order to carry out their functions and the extent to which they understand and apply these competencies.

On my next blog post, I will try to help my readers identify how to improve organizational development. I will make reference to the main elements that make the foundations of the administration structure up.

Find out more about our continuous improvement processes on the links below:

Ebook información documentada, cumplimiento a la norma ISO

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