[QUOTE=RickJay]
That’s up to you. There’s no one “they.” ISO doesn’t do audits; registrars do audits. ISO 9001 doesn’t have anything to do with the specifications of the product; it’s up to you to determine what the customer/market/law wants and base your procedures and specifications on that.
If you aren’t already doing about 85% of what ISO 9001:2000 requires, your business is completely screwed, and the 15% you’re not doing will help you if you do do it. If a consultant comes in and tells you you need a quality manual that’s as thick as a dictionary, they’re lying and trying to rip you off. It’s all common sense stuff.
Heck, send me a private E-mail and I’ll recommend some resources for you.
(I wonder if Leaffan is a former colleague of mine…)
No, not if you do it right. If ASME is what you need to conform to to control the quality of your work, ASME paperwork is, by definition, what you need.
ISO 9001 isn’t really that big a deal. It used to be, but the new version of the standard is pretty reasonable and is much friendlier to non-manufacturers. To be honest, any decent company - even a small one - should be doing most of what it asks for.
In my experience, the most common trouble companies have is they don’t realize how much ISO 9001 lets them decide how to manage quality. They assume they must have, say, a procedure for purchasing. Nope; there’s no requirement for that. Go ahead, look it up. They figure, well, ISO 9001 means I have to do SPC. Nope, no such requirement; that would make sense in some companies, but not in others. They assume they have to organize their quality manuals the same way the standard’s organized. Nope; as a matter of fact we advise you NOT do that. They assume they need to do site audits of their suppliers. No such requirement. But what they don’t do is set their own goals, determine their own improvement plans, get creative in coming up with corrective actions. THAT’S the important shit.
Sure, there’s a few things it adds. You have to do audits on yourself, so that’s some more work, but it’s a pretty good thing to do anyway. You have to do management reviews, but surely you have management meetings now, right? Just take notes of those meetings and make sure they include some mention of all the basics the standard calls for (and it’s all logical stuff.) You have to have a procedure for nonconforming service and product but brother, if you don’t take care of pissed off customers and busted products now, you’ll be out of business by next Tuesday. You have to have quality objectives, but any decent company already has objectives or KPIs or a balanced scorecard of some sort. You have to have a document control procedure, but if you’re an engineering firm I sure hope you already know how to control drawings and instructions and stuff like that.
[/QUOTE]
We already have a QC manual that’s thick as a…well, not a dictionary, but it’s substantial.
It has set procedures for everything from purchasing, drawing control, document control, material control, manufacturing control, inspection, testing, calibration, you name it. ASME leaves very few stones unturned.
None of this is elective, the procedure must be followed for every job and it is audited by an outside agency for every job.
Additionally, some customers conduct their own inspections, either by their in-house inspection team or a third party inspection company.
We have additional documented hold/checkpoints above and beyond what ASME calls for on every job. Also, the customer specs often call for more documentation than is required by ASME. We (I) have lots of paperwork.
Thing is, our product isn’t deficient, our customer service isn’t deficient, the higher ups seem to be satisfied with the bottom line (of course if having ISO certification would increase business they’d be happier I’m sure). Sounds like to me we already surpass what ISO requires and customers just want to see ISO to give them a warm fuzzy without fully understanding what already goes into the product.
I guess there’s no use worrying about it, if they decide to implement ISO then that’s that and I’ll either do it or they can get somebody else to.
Sorry for hijacking Leaffan’s post with my petty bitching, I just don’t want any more paperwork.
