COULD I GET SOME CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK ON OUR QUALITY POLICY??

" XXX INC. SUPPLIES PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT MEET OR EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS AND DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS, THROUGH CUSTOMER FOCUS AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT."


THANX IN ADVANCE ;)

Continual instead of continuouss for the purists. There is a difference between the 2.

Where is "committment" to anything?

Kinda bland...look at some other policies, then do yours.

Remember, the policy is basically a theory that the system is to bring to reality.

The policy is the "Prime Directive".

The policy is the foundation or the keystone the organization is going to build its QMS on or around. Turn the document pyramid upside down. The policy holds everything up.

Basically what you have is a nice, warm, fuzzy, pablem tasting, dull, blase', approach. Make it live!!!

You might consider developing, or reviewing, your company's objectives, and authoring your policy statement as an statement that blankets your objectives. This should create a policy statement that is then supported by the company objectives and progress toward compliance is verifiable through measuring attainment of those objectives.

As an example: Company X strives to be number one in our market [verifiable through market share analysis], providing product/service that meets the customer's needs [verifiable through your customer sat. measurements] in a timely and cost efficient manner [measure delivery timeframes; and waste, scrap, rework, etc.].

At least this is one way.:) :bigwave:

How do you measure exceeding your customer's expectation on delivery? they expect it on time. Is on time or its not. How can you exceed on time?


Sorry, it s been a bad day, didn't mean to sound so negative...LOL

BUT you need to hit the measurables. As an auditor i have seen that exact policy TOO MANY times.

Hi Barb!!! Where have you been? I haven't seen you here in a while.

Kinda makes you nauseous after a few of them doesn't it Barb?



No disrespect or unkindness intended towards you KRAPO. You just need to work it some.

THANX FOR THE INPUT AND KIND WORDS, YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED. I HAVE HAD MUCH INPUT FROM MANAGEMENT AND HAVE REWRITTEN QUALITY POLICY COUNTLESS (NON MEASURABLE) TIMES. ARE WE GETTING CLOSER??:confused:

" XXXX. INC. IS COMMITTED TO SUPPLYING PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES THAT MEET OR EXCEED CUSTOMER
REQUIREMENTS, IN A TIMELY, COST EFFICIENT MANNER,
BY FOCUSING ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND THE
CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT OF OUR QUALITY SYSTEM"


;) THANX AGAIN, KRAPO

Barb queried, "How do you measure exceeding your customer's expectation on delivery? they expect it on time. Is on time or its not. How can you exceed on time?"

What if the glass were half empty, and not half full? How about measuring to ensure that ALL deliveries are on time? If they are then discontinue that metric, BUT if they're not - then PDCA until it is no longer an issue.

Sorry, but I have worked for too many companies that make the statement that they will delivery on time and struggle to accomplish that on a regular basis.

I'd lose the "exceed". All that will get you is auditor questions of how do you do that and why?

Oh one other thing. Timely is a given with the customer. It is itself one of the customer supplied requirements. They want it by a certain time. No sense beating yourself over the head by saying it twice. IMHO

As long as you say "meet or exceed customer requirements" I don't see the problem. If the auditor would ask "how do you do that (the exceed part) and why?" I think most companies could answer that.

How? For example, let's say we make aerosol cans. The customer requires that the cans we ship them have a burst strength of 100 psi minimum, while our cans average 135 psi with a sd of 3.5 psi and we never shipped anything out-of-spec. in the 3 years we've sold to them. So we exceed the requirements. They want them shipped ASAP but no later than 3-25-03, and we shipped them 3-20-03, so we exceeded the requirements. Etc.

Why? Aren't you happier when you get more than the minimum required?

Am I missing something???

Mike S. said:

Why? Aren't you happier when you get more than the minimum required?

Depends, in my opinion. My requirements are my requirements. If I want a product delivered to my warehouse on Wednesday, but you deliver it on Monday, you've "exceeded" my requirement. However, I may not have room in my warehouse on Monday and I may have to set aside resources to either make room immediately or deal with your driver to return the product. I'm not a happy Customer, suddenly.

If my requirement for aerosol cans is 100 psi, I may have a reason for that requirement. Should you give me cans at 135 psi, perhaps the application for the aerosol can is no longer applicable as you have "exceeded" my requirements. Once again, I'm not a happy Customer.

I'm one of those people that refuse to put "exceed" in my Quality Policy. I will meet the Customers requirements (yeah, yeah...the statutory, regulatory and other requirements that are not stated....blah blah blah)....end of story.

Through Customer communication and Customer focus and Customer satisfaction, I will find out if it is okay for me to provide you with aerosol cans that exceed your stated requirements.

Just my two cents Canadian.......around 0.136 US. :)

RCBeyette said:

Through Customer communication and Customer focus and Customer satisfaction, I will find out if it is okay for me to provide you with aerosol cans that exceed your stated requirements.

The worst part is realy to determine the customer requirements. I am in the aviation industry, both military and civil, and requirements are tough to agree upon. One of the first thing that I have been taugh in Six Sigma is to ask the correct question for determining requirements.

This need a good communication between the parties, and we use "heavy" processes (Request for Proposal, Statement of Work, General Compliance metrics, Question and Answer list and Data Item Descriptions) for that purpose - but it is a given in this type of industry.

At the end, it is easy to show we meet the customer requirements. However, it is nearly "impossible" to exceed customer expectation.

BTW, two cents Canadian is going up!

RCBeyette said:

Depends, in my opinion. My requirements are my requirements. If I want a product delivered to my warehouse on Wednesday, but you deliver it on Monday, you've "exceeded" my requirement. However, I may not have room in my warehouse on Monday and I may have to set aside resources to either make room immediately or deal with your driver to return the product. I'm not a happy Customer, suddenly.

If my requirement for aerosol cans is 100 psi, I may have a reason for that requirement. Should you give me cans at 135 psi, perhaps the application for the aerosol can is no longer applicable as you have "exceeded" my requirements. Once again, I'm not a happy Customer.

I'm one of those people that refuse to put "exceed" in my Quality Policy. I will meet the Customers requirements (yeah, yeah...the statutory, regulatory and other requirements that are not stated....blah blah blah)....end of story.

Through Customer communication and Customer focus and Customer satisfaction, I will find out if it is okay for me to provide you with aerosol cans that exceed your stated requirements.

Just my two cents Canadian.......around 0.136 US. :)
RC,

Of course customer communication is critical as you state, as is understanding their application and the needs that may be unspecified yet important.

But in my example the spec. was "100 psi minimum", and, at least in my mind when I wrote it, greater was better. In our industry we have several spec's. where a minimum only is set and greater is better with no value too high. So, in such a case, if the spec. is that parameter "X" must be 100 minimum, anything over 100 is exceeding requirements and makes the customer happier as the value gets higher.

You're also right with your comment in YOUR shipping example, but in MINE the customer wanted them shipped "ASAP but no later than 3-25-03", so I exceeded minimum requirements and the customer was again happier than if we had just gotten them there on 3-25-03 -- just "meeting" requirements. Again, this happens in our company, with our customers, at times.

So, in SOME cases, exceeding requirements is both desirable and easy to demonstrate, IMO. So a blanket statement against using "exceed requirements" in the QP is wrong, IMO. It depends on the company and situation, as is so often the case.
:bigwave:

I guess what I don't see is the value added to the product when you exceed what the customer wants. If the customer is happy with what he received, IMHO he may not be happier with a product which is sent to him which exceeds his requirements. The goal of business is to provide the customer with what he wants at the best cost to them. Exceeding requirements cost money, and that's where it's all at.

Hi.
As the standard says you have to include in your quality policy "a commitment to comply with requirements", an usually this are clients' requirements, so why don't you eliminate the word "exceed".
For me the other part is good: "BY FOCUSING ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND THE CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT OF OUR QUALITY SYSTEM"

- Congratulations for this quality forum, the information and the experiences you share are very interesting -

I'm afraid that if I just provide my customer with what they want, at sometime I'm going to look around and find that my customer has gone somewhere else. Because someone is providing them with more than what they wanted, AND at the same or a reduced price.

I'm going to show my age now, but back in the 60's and 70's here in America most of us were SATISFIED with automobiles from "the Big Three". Then the "gas crisis" hit us and in conjuction a little island country in Southeast Asia started sending over cars that, though initially were not up to par with the American auto for comfort/luxury, met our needs for fuel economy.

Many in "the Big Three" felt that their customers would return once this oil thing was over; but by that time the Japanese had made great strides in comfort, reliability, and luxury AND at a cost much less than "the Big Three" could even begin to compete with.

The rest (as they say) is history.

Now my point: Many times the customer knows what they want and may be satisfied for a moment receiving it, but once they are aware of something better at the same (or reduced) cost - they will leave what they were satisfied with in an instant.

Hence the reason that I believe that no company should be satisfied with providing the customer with what they WANT, but should be striving to EXCEED the customer's expectations.

Yes David... Quite right, we do need to look ahead, and it's good to see that some people still remember that little asian country, because there will always be others waiting in the wings, and given half a chance they'll subject the "established" producers to that treatment again...

The time when a business can relax will never come.... Except of course, when it's already gone down the drain.

/Claes

Russ said "I guess what I don't see is the value added to the product when you exceed what the customer wants. If the customer is happy with what he received, IMHO he may not be happier with a product which is sent to him which exceeds his requirements. The goal of business is to provide the customer with what he wants at the best cost to them. Exceeding requirements cost money, and that's where it's all at."

I must admit I think more along the lines of ddhartma. If you are satisfied with just meeting requirements I respect your decision -- it's your business. But my experience, as well as that of many or most leading experts in the area of customer service and business growth and success, suggests that if you strive to exceed the customer's minimum requirements when you can you will be more successful than your competitors who don't do this, even considering the possibility of added expense to exceed requirements. If you do a search of books on the subject of business improvement and quality I'd bet that you can find dozens or hundreds that deal with how to exceed requirements to improve your sales AND profits but very few if any that suggest that the key is how to just minimally meet requirements.

Consider a simple example: I take my car to the garage for an oil change and lube job. They promise a 30 minute job for $19.95. My minimum requirements is that they will get me done in 30 minutes, do the correct work in the correct way with no damage to my car, treat me decently, and charge me $19.95. If they do this I will be satisfied -- minimum requirements met.

However, if a friendly, smiling person greets me warmly, gets my information, offers me a cup of coffee and a donut, directs me to a clean area where I can sit and watch TV or read a magazine while I wait, notifies me that my winshield washer fluid was a bit low and that they topped it off for free, offers to e-mail me a notice when my next service is due, and gets me out in 20 minutes, my requirements have been exceeded. I am impressed, and pleasantly suprised. Now, instead of just leaving and not thinking of the experience any more, I tell my friends about the shop, and I even go a little out of my way in the future to go there in the future, and take my car there for other, more serious things, in the future. For maybe $1 cost to them they hooked me as a customer and got a few more customers through my word of mouth.

Also, consider the times your sales force takes a client to dinner or maybe a round of golf, or maybe sends a fruit basket to the customer at Christmas. Are these things "requirements"? No. So why do most companies do this stuff?

My opinion is exceed requirements when you can. If you don't, it is likely someone else will. Never get too comfortable. This is a big part of CI, IMO.

Exceeding requirements cost money, and that's where it's all at.

Exceeding does not always cost money - it may save some. It all depends on how you define "exceed".

If you improve your processes, and therefore reduce cost and/or time and/ or quality, then you exceeded most of your customers' demand AND gained - not lost - money. You take that lesson learned and use it to your advange to give you an extra edge in the competive market.

If you want to stay competitive, your company must have something better or innovative - that is the key to success.

From the Ivey Business Journal, July/Aug 2000 article from Robert G Cooper :The top success factor is delivering a differentiated product with unique customer benefits and superior value. Such superior products have five time the success rate, more than five times the market share and four times the profitability of products that lack this ingerdient. But most new products miss the mark here: The majority of products in our studies are tired "me too" products with little to distinguish them from competitors.

You may not want to exceed, but you surely want to improve and innovate!

I wanted to give my perspective on exceeding customer expectations based on a personal experience as a customer. I was purchasing a personal computer for home use. When I called my order into the computer company, the customer sales representative advised me that they could provide me with a larger monitor at no cost to me. This exceeded my requirements. What I liked was the communication that took place. It was up to me as the customer to accept the upgrade or not. I did not have space limitations on where the monitor was going so I was more than happy to accept. The important aspect is the communication that took place. If I had space limitations, it would have been nice to get a larger monitor at no additional cost, but it would not fit my limited area.

It is the customer who will determine if we exceed their requirements or not. This is dependent on many things. Each case is different. We must stay in tune with our customers by communicating with them. IMHO :)

The important aspect is the communication that took place. If I had space limitations, it would have been nice to get a larger monitor at no additional cost, but it would not fit my limited area.

It is the customer who will determine if we exceed their requirements or not. This is dependent on many things. Each case is different. We must stay in tune with our customers by communicating with them. IMHO :)

I was reading through this thread thinking that everyone has good points and all the examples were valid points - you said it best though - communicate with your customer!!

Thanks Cari! I appreciate your comments.

I find this forum so benefitical. I look at it for support in what I am currently working on. I have even downloaded some of the threads and distributed them to colleagues to get them on board. The impact this forum has is unmeasurable. I find the expertise of information the best!

Thanks to all who contribute and keep it going.

Hi, all

I was looking through this thread and it hit me that there is another way to look at this that has not been discussed here yet.

The Taguchi loss function (this is my abridged version) says that any deviation above or below the specification means a loss - to the company or to society. If we put too much into a product, it takes the company's (and society's) resources away from a more valuable use. Of course, we can all imagine the loss resulting from sub-spec material.

I realize that this is just a theory, but spending more money to exceed expectations is a cost. To borrow from an earlier post, is the $1 cost of the donut and coffee, plus the clean waiting room, recovered by more business? The ability to charge higher prices? Its hard to tell, but it is an important question.

Good point Craig.

It bothers me as well when I see statements of exceeding customers expectations - I wonder how the other stakeholders and interested parties in the business see this ?

If we were to exceed all our customers of sink taps expectations we might choose to gold plate them all. I am sure our customers would be delighted, but would not wish to pay any more. When we go bust in a fortnight how will our customers feel then ?

Good point Craig.

It bothers me as well when I see statements of exceeding customers expectations - I wonder how the other stakeholders and interested parties in the business see this ?

If we were to exceed all our customers of sink taps expectations we might choose to gold plate them all. I am sure our customers would be delighted, but would not wish to pay any more. When we go bust in a fortnight how will our customers feel then ?


Please note as I stated earlier. Exceeding customer expectations is dependent on many variables. It is not, and will not, be feasible for all industries. In the chemical industry, (industry I work for) this is not feasible. We, too, will lose money. But there are, as quoted in the treads above, many ways you can exceed the customer's expectations without spending alot of money. If your company can't spend the money, you explore other alternatives.

Good point Craig.

It bothers me as well when I see statements of exceeding customers expectations - I wonder how the other stakeholders and interested parties in the business see this ?

If we were to exceed all our customers of sink taps expectations we might choose to gold plate them all. I am sure our customers would be delighted, but would not wish to pay any more. When we go bust in a fortnight how will our customers feel then ?

Keep in mind guys that "exceeding the customer's expectations" may not always involve the product. Sure those of us that want a Yugo would not appreciate being charge for the Mercedes that you sent instead. But if I ordered a Yugo and had problems with it (Could that ever happen? :) ) and you offered to pick the car up, provide me with a loaner, and fix my car for free and mailed me a token amount (or a coupon for service) for my inconvenience; THAT would be exceeding my expectations. And even if I did have problems with my cheap little car, I still might consider continuing to be a customer.

I remember 26 years ago when I was working as a repair tech for a radio and TV shop, the Service Manager taught me to clean and polish (where appropriate) every customer's product prior to letting it go out the door. I didn't take much time, and cost was minimal, but the customer's noticed - and returned.

Exceeding your customer's expectations doesn't always take a lot of time or money, most of the time it's in the little things we do; and I have always seen a return on my investment. :thedeal:

Keep in mind guys that "exceeding the customer's expectations" may not always involve the product. Sure those of us that want a Yugo would not appreciate being charge for the Mercedes that you sent instead. But if I ordered a Yugo and had problems with it (Could that ever happen? :) ) and you offered to pick the car up, provide me with a loaner, and fix my car for free and mailed me a token amount (or a coupon for service) for my inconvenience; THAT would be exceeding my expectations. And even if I did have problems with my cheap little car, I still might consider continuing to be a customer.

I remember 26 years ago when I was working as a repair tech for a radio and TV shop, the Service Manager taught me to clean and polish (where appropriate) every customer's product prior to letting it go out the door. I didn't take much time, and cost was minimal, but the customer's noticed - and returned.

Exceeding your customer's expectations doesn't always take a lot of time or money, most of the time it's in the little things we do; and I have always seen a return on my investment. :thedeal:

ddhartma:

Ok, in this case there were still costs, but as you point out, they were minimal. It might even be that the cleaning procedure was one of those unspoken specs, especially if the competing shop accross town was doing it, too.

I should point out here that I consider Taguchi's Loss Function to be similar to accepted economic theory - things tend to be this way, in other words.

In a "perfect" economic sense, the donut discussed earlier would be a variation on the model - what we need is an oil change, and we "should" tend to obtain that at the lowest possible cost, or lowest possible total cost, and the $1 for refreshments would work to perclude that. As we move from the bottom of the supply chain towards the consumer, this phenomena diminishes, IMO, and the "soft" stuff starts to matter more. Take the company I work for. We supply to the companies that make paint, rubber, and plastics. Chances are that most, if not all, who read this have never heard of our product, yet the car you drive has 20 - 25 pounds of it. Would it make sense for us to spend the money to advertise during the Super Bowl? We are seeing more and more customers who say right out front "Forget the golf. Put the cost saved towards saving me money."

Even for, say, Coke, advertising might be hard to justify within a purist definition of the Loss Function. But, the Loss effect is still real nonetheless.

Oh, by the way, I agree that customer delight does not have to cost much, if anything, and the devil IS in the details.

I favor leaving out fluff words like "exceeds". Hard to prove and not always a positive as mentioned in some scenarios. But my limited experience with policies is "don't waste too much time on them!" Your time would be much better spent on quality planning and developing quality objectives. The policy thing is a joke, let's be serious here. Spend enough time on it to satisfy the requirement and move on. When's the last time you bought a product because of a companie's policy?! Performance is the focus of the standard in my opinion.

Hi all

Our department provides an equipment maintenance service to a large teaching hospital and after discussion with our customer, produced, as you can see below, a very 'unfluffy' quality policy statement. Our external auditor has expressed his gratitude in seeing such an objective statement for once. Each sentence can be tracked back to the QMS and objective evidence of compliance to the statement gathered.

Any comments appreciated.

Statement as follows:

It is the policy of the M**** E**** Department to provide the R**** L**** University Hospital and other customers with a service that ensures:

All inventoried medical equipment has an up-time of greater than 99% and an average turn-around time of less than 20 hours

Preventive maintenance is delivered in a planned and effective manner

Levels of customer satisfaction continually improve.

M**** E**** is dedicated to the continual improvement of its services and of the department as a whole, through process control, employee empowerment and management commitment.

Signed 'Top Management'



Kind regards to the forum.

This is our quality policy. hope this helps
XXXXX is committed to consistently satisfy the customers withquality products and services that meet, and where possible exceed their expectations, by continually improving the business process.

I would also appreciate some consturctive comments.
thanks
siva

Hello Siva,
Sounds good to me, the standard says:

Top Management SHALL insure that the quality policy
a. is appropriate to the purpose of the organization,
b. includes a commitment to comply with requirements and continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system,
c. provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives,
d. is communicated and understood within the organization, and
e. is reviewed for continuing suitability.

Your commitment to comply with requirements... is "with quality products and services that meet, and where possible exceed their expectations,"
and continually improve the effectiveness...is "by continually improving the business process."
Just my opinion, it is skimpy but it works and thats the point.

OK here is my Quality Policy...

Quality Policy

The Employees of XXX Inc. are committed to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations and satisfaction through competitive price, on time delivery and excellent product quality. We accomplish this by maintaining and reviewing an ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 Quality Management System.

Thanks Paula :bigwave:

Top Management SHALL insure that the quality policy

c. provides a framework for establishing and reviewing quality objectives,

OK here is my Quality Policy...

Quality Policy

The Employees of XXX Inc. are committed to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations and satisfaction through competitive price, on time delivery and excellent product quality. We accomplish this by maintaining and reviewing an ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 Quality Management System.

Thanks Paula :bigwave:

Paula,

What metrics do use for the Objectives? How do you gauge Competitve price? Timely Delivery? Excellent Product Quality?
My auditor wants me to prove how we manage our policy objectives. What does yours say?

Quality Objectives are mentioned in the following clauses: Note: 5.4.1.
4.2.1 Documentation requirements,
5.1 management Commitment,
Quality policy,
5.4.1 Quality objectives...'The quality objectives shall be measurable and consistant with the the quality policy'
5.4.2 Quality Management System Planning,
5.6.1 Management Review,
6.2.2 Competence, Awareness and training,
7.1 Planning Product Realisation, and
8.5.1 Continual Improvement.

It can be a bit of a nightmare but I have recently read an article that has been VERY helpul (IMHO) and I have mentioned it in other threads.
www.oxebridge.com has an article titled 'The Complete guide to understanding & implementing ISO 9001's Process Management Requirements' go to Part three: Quality Objectives it chnaged my view on the whole objectives thing and made it easier for me to understand.

Greg B :)

Paula,

What metrics do use for the Objectives? How do you gauge Competitve price? Timely Delivery? Excellent Product Quality?
My auditor wants me to prove how we manage our policy objectives. What does yours say?

Quality Objectives are mentioned in the following clauses: Note: 5.4.1.
4.2.1 Documentation requirements,
5.1 management Commitment,
Quality policy,
5.4.1 Quality objectives...'The quality objectives shall be measurable and consistant with the the quality policy'
5.4.2 Quality Management System Planning,
5.6.1 Management Review,
6.2.2 Competence, Awareness and training,
7.1 Planning Product Realisation, and
8.5.1 Continual Improvement.

It can be a bit of a nightmare but I have recently read an article that has been VERY helpul (IMHO) and I have mentioned it in other threads.
www.oxebridge.com has an article titled 'The Complete guide to understanding & implementing ISO 9001's Process Management Requirements' go to Part three: Quality Objectives it chnaged my view on the whole objectives thing and made it easier for me to understand.

Greg B :)

Greg,
Our Quality Objectives are measured at every Management Review Meeting, including a review of our Quality Policy. If you were here I could show you tons of audit evidence. Our Quality Policy is appropriate to the purpose of our organization, ect...IMHO
Paula Thanks for the tip, I will check out the site.
:bigwave:

Greg,
Our Quality Objectives are measured at every Management Review Meeting, including a review of our Quality Policy. If you were here I could show you tons of audit evidence. Our Quality Policy is appropriate to the purpose of our organization, ect...IMHO
Paula Thanks for the tip, I will check out the site.
:bigwave:

Paula,
Don't get me wrong. I am not having a go at you or your Policy. Ours is very similar. I was asking the question what does your registrar say?? Mine wants me to prove the objectives of the policy. We also discuss our KPIs (objectives) for ALL areas at our MRM and yet he is still harping on about the Policy's Objectives.

P.S Your web page address (in your profile) is missing an 'r'.

Greg B :truce:

Greg B :truce:[/QUOTE]


Hello Greg,

Sorry, I read my post again this morning and realize it kinda sounds grumpy. Guess I should not post that late at night! Or even this early but the dogs wanted breakfast and they don't seem to know its a holiday!
We have had the same registrar since 1999 and have had the same Lead Auditor every year. Last November we had to recertify to the 1994 standard and again just AS9100 compliant because of the cost and time issues. I was given my position in September and two months was just not enough time to get ready for ISO9001:2000 and AS9100 Rev. A.
We had a different Quality Policy at the time, it was fine then (meaning it made it through the audit).
The only nonconformances found were no objective evidence of followup audits from the last ISO Audit.
I have been with this company for 16 years, its a small OEM for the Aerospace Industry, we have had our hours cut to 32 per week. I also have a second job as an Asst. Mgr for 5 Spay Neuter Clinics along with being a QMS Provisional Auditor and trying to get my feet wet in the auditing profession. I really love this stuff and the cove has been a great help in getting our Quality System put together. I downloaded some info from the www.oxebridge.com site last night, looks interesting.
Anyway, I have had to take the whole system apart to streamline and make it work for us as a small company instead of us working for the system. I had to do it in about 3 months so I could get on with the day to day stuff Internal Audits, preparing for MRM's, making sure Training has been completed, building parts, Inspection, Shipping etc...
It is very hard not to want to re-invent the wheel everytime someone critiques your work. I am going to go for the Audit head first and take my lumps, and work on the Nonconformances as they come. Thats why I should not post late at night and ask for what I dont want to hear! :vfunny:
I am taking the Lead Auditor course for AS9100 on July 20th, so I will probably be really busy making changes because we need to get certified sometime in October.
I am also getting quotes from other registrars who are AS9100 Registered, so this time is not going to be easy. Sorry so long winded, and Thanks again for your help, :bigwave: it is always welcome.

Paula

Paula,

The NC problem is the same one I got last time. Not enough objective evidence documented to close out corrective actions and audits. Basically if I don't collect it noone else seems to bother half of the time.

I agree about the 'Not reinventing the wheel' although this thread has given me some great ideas I don't think I have the energy left (after being certified to 9K2K) to go back and, basically, start from scratch. I do however have to tie our business plan objectives back to our Policy.
PS: I saw your Yahoo address and now I know what a raptor is. We have a Kawasaki 4x4 quad for our Brahman Property (Ranch). Yours looks a bit more daring.

Greg :bigwave:

Hello Greg,
You should post your Quality Policy and Objectives here, maybe they already are tied together some how and you just dont see it? Hey do you have Sand Dunes over there? The Raptor is a sport bike, can reach about 70mph, wheighs about 418lbs. I love to ride in the dunes mostly...ok back to Quality.
See ya :bigwave:
Paula