| January 2007 Ideas for Improving Your Business in 2007 |
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At this time of year it is natural to reflect on your annual performance and set personal and business goals for the upcoming year. The question is what kind of results do you want to create for yourself and your business?
In this issue: Improving your business performance in 2006 and a fascinating article titled “The future of quality defined.” READ MORE
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| February 2007 How to Conduct Effective Process Based Audits |
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What is a process based audit? Lets begin by reviewing the definition of an audit from ISO 9000:2005, Fundamentals and Vocabulary, clause 3.9.1. An audit is: “a systematic, independent, and documented process... READ MORE
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| March 2007 Auditing Design and Development Process |
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The objective of auditing the design and development process is to determine whether it is managed and controlled to enable products to meet their intended use and specified requirements. READ MORE
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| April 2007 Auditing customer feedback processes |
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Customer feedback is a process. It needs to be audited as a process, not as a “clause of the standard”. An evaluation also needs to be performed on the way in which the process is managed (see ISO 9001:2000 clause 4.1.c), and its ability to provide meaningful information with which to judge the overall effectiveness of the QMS. The way in which the organization obtains this feedback (“the method”) is up to the organization to define. READ MORE
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| May 2007 How to Audit ISO 9001:2000, 4.1 General Requirements |
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Remember when you were in school and had to write a paper on some subject? The teacher would remind you to use the opening paragraph to provide an overview before getting into the details. The opening paragraph is like a road map that helps guide the reader through the rest of your paper. Well, clause 4.1 serves that purpose for the standard. READ MORE
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| June 2007 Auditing Customer Feedback Processes |
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The customer feedback process is a critical part of the quality management system, and should therefore receive adequate attention during a third party audit. Feedback from the customer is one of the primary performance indicators that can be used to judge the overall effectiveness of the QMS. READ MORE
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| July 2007 How to Audit an Internal Audit Program |
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How do you audit an internal audit program? Lets begin by reviewing the definition of an audit from ISO 9000:2005, Fundamentals and Vocabulary, clause 3.9.1. An audit is: "a systematic, independent, and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which audit criteria are fulfilled." READ MORE
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| August 2007 U.S. Workplace in Need of Team Builders |
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According to a survey conducted this year by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and Office Team, 67 percent of the professionals surveyed said they would hire an applicant with strong soft skills whose technical abilities were lacking. READ MORE
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| September 2007 Records Mananagement |
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The ISO 9001:2000 quality standard addresses the control of records, but only includes three sentences of requirements: 1) Records must be established and maintained to provide evidence of conformity to requirements and of the effective operation of the quality management system...READ MORE
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| October 2007 ISO 9001:2000 and Quality Plans |
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The words "plan", "planned", and "planning" are used more than 30 times in the requirement clauses of the ISO 9001:2000 standard. A plan is simply a method you develop...READ MORE
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| November 2007 Auditing Analysis of Data |
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Analyzing data is an essential activity for improving your system and its processes, as well as your products and services. Data collection has no purpose if... READ MORE
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| December 2007 Instruction or Quick Reference? |
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A "cheat sheet" is a concise set of notes used for quick reference. In the academic world, cheat sheets are so named because they may be used... READ MORE
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| Newsletter Archives |
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Archives of past monthly newsletters, a great resource of quality and management systems information.
2010 Newsletter Archive
2009 Newsletter Archive
2008 Newsletter Archive
2007 Newsletter Archive
2006 Newsletter Archive
2005 Newsletter Archive
2004 Newsletter Archive
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Improving Operational Performance in Troubled Times
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