Hi guys, I'm new to this forum and a bit inexperienced with regards to ISO14001. First let me explain myself a little:
I am an Irish student of Environmental Science, on an internship for an aircraft overhaul company in the Philippines. I am stationed in the Quality Management department and have been asked to assess the companys readiness for ISO 14001. So far I am doing ok (I think) and right now I am trying to gauge how much cost will be involved.
So, I recon first step is to arrange an ISO14001 core team right, there are 22 major sections here so thats 22 for general ISO training and awareness sounds ok? These guys will be selected from within the company and just have additional responsibility (with an added salary bonus to ensure commitment). Then we need internal auditors, and my question: how many does a company need?
The company is pretty big and employs over 2,500 people. There is already a division of quality auditors (around 8-10 people) but they are mainly concerned with just that-quality, and no mention of environmental factors.
It was suggested to me that of the 22 trained, 14 be selected to go on for internal auditor training, is this too much? Also their impartiality may be effected as they will be working in the divisions they are supposed to be auditing with the people they are scrutinising.
So far, our idea is to hire an additional employee with a degree in Environmental Engineering and a good deal of experience to be our "head" ISO14001 person, this person would be located directly under the VP of quality and have their own secretary. Then underneath his/her influence would be the auditors and the core team. Does this sound ok or am I missing something?
Thanks for any help you can offer
Regards
Dee :thanx:

Does it sound like your missing something? Yeah, I think your missing the boat and are in the process of designing a cow by committee and winding up with a Wildebeast. You're committing a deadly sin....over-engineering.

It's great that all these resources that are going to be allocated, blah, blah, blah...but is it a good use for them? How did you come by these numbers for personnel?

Before you do all the stuff you mentioned, why not find out where you are? If you have an existing QMS in place no effort needs to be generated developing a document/record control process, audit program, management review process, and so forth. Your 1st step needs to be assess you present status...we call it a gap analysis. Look at the requirements and determine what and how you may be presently meeting them. Once you know where your at, then you can plan when you need to go and how your going to get there.

On the subject of your Environmetal Engineer...might be a good choice, but what I've seen is that more often than not it is a horrendous one. Are you going to require this person to have some type of verifiable management system competence, or are you going to say "He's got a degree, so he should know everything?"

Keep everything as simple as you can.

yeah thanks, I have done a kind of gap analysis but i figure having people to actually do the work is important too no?
as I said we got the 22 people for the core team as there are 22 main divisions here, the 14 is narrowing it down a bit- 2 from each of the main departments which are responsible for the most significant aspects and one from each of the more office type work that happens here.
Yes I would suggest that the person hired have experience in the area, as their sole responsibility would be ISO14001.
You have to remember that I am in the Philippines here, things are a little different (to say the least) and legislation is not as strict as it is in Europe or in the US (I presume), so they have an "Environmental Protection Procedures" handbook which they got from their sister company in Germany, yet most of the procedures outlined are not adhered to due to monetary constraints. While not starting from scratch, there is an awful lot of work for this company to do, I am only on an internship here and will finish in July, therfore I think to organise a team would be a good starting point.


Also, to reiterate my original queries, How many internal auditors are needed for ISO and what general structure can be applied..

ISO doesn't specify the number of internal auditors. The number of internal auditors needed depends upon the company and how they structure their internal audit system. One person auditing a lot? 10 people each auditing certain systems / parts?

Structure? You make a schedule knowing what has to be audited and other factors such as how many auditors you have. Do you have an internal auditing procedure (system defined)?