Hi all,
I am in my first couple of years as a Quality Engineer
and my wife is in need of a QMS and Health and Safety manual update.
As I work in a busy aerospace company the QMS I deal with is far too extreme for her small business and I am struggling to know where to start to write her decent and robust documents that will help her business be more quality oriented....
Any help would be much appreciated!
I'd start by looking at the areas that directly affect the business in an immediate way - costs. So purchasing and receiving processes can be addressed first (and note that these aren't one of the six required documents that everyone goes on about - the realities of business can't be constrained by ISO). Some questions that can be asked: How often do vendors screw up orders? How often are deliveries late? Does she have a method in place to deal with errors? How often does she inadvertently order the wrong products? How does she decide who to buy from and who to avoid?
On time delivery might be implemented as the ability to maintain the booking schedules for the day. As an example, if she finds that she is continually behind by 10:00 am every day and all the remaining bookings are subsequently pushed out (yeah, a problem that is nicer to deal with than not having any work, I know), this can be measured. Then root cause can be established along with corrective action. Perhaps the root cause may be resource-based (not enough staff, stations, sinks etc), perhaps it's not allowing enough time in the bookings to do the required job, maybe it's something as inocuous as too much chatting. She won't know unless she sets targets and keep metrics. How long does a cut and color take? What about a multi-color job without a cut? Are the times consistent for similar jobs? A cheap kitchen timer at each station and logging the results for a month can really give valuable information. Hard evidence, not estimates.
Customer satisfaction can be measured by writing up a quick online survey, so she can get feedback as to how the salon is performing. Remember, just because people aren't actively complaining doesn't necessarily mean they are happy with the service. For me, as an example, I typically won't complain - I just won't go back. Surveys are a great way to help identify areas for improvement that she may have never realized needed improvement. SurveyMonkey is a simple way of doing this. Does your wife ask clients for email addresses?
It's a start, something to consider. Good on you for this, as principles of ISO can be effectively applied to ANY business.
