ISO 9000 Quality Consultant - What are the prerequisite things I need to know

[vinay_nagaraj]

I have been hired as Quality Consultant by a company to guide the company fo ISO 9000 certification. What are the prerequeste things I need to know or should do? How will I prepare for this assignement?

[Jennifer Kirley]

Oh dear.

I find this question problematic because all of these questions should logically have been asked and answered before the hire. The old American saying for this situation is "Placing the cart before the horse."

How much do you know about ISO? What are your experiences and their depth in leading an organization to this process--what do you bring with you?

I find it hard to imagine an appropriate response without having information as to these essentials. While you respond I will look up a thread to refer you to.

[Ajit Basrur]

Vinay,

Can you be more specific in your question ? Since you have been selected as a "Quality Consultant", I assume that you have the required qualities and capabilities. Just go ahead

Have you start preparing with that company's Quality Manual, required procedures etc ?

[Jennifer Kirley]

Do a preassessment of the company using a standard ISO checklist of all the elements. What are they doing that complies? What doesn't comply, what's missing? You'll need to be ready with this checklist and its sections for taking notes. You should have had training in lead auditor to do this, and hopefully how to conduct opening and closing meetings, manage the auditing project, etc. You can prepare for your kickoff meeting with management by including an agenda similar to that which a lead auditor would use. See Randy's description of an agenda in this thread: Does anyone conduct opening & closing meetings for their internal audits?

Consider the types of documentation most appropriate for the client. Here's a long thread, but I recommend it because it has lots of good advice on documents and tools that youi should be ready to present/consider as options. QMS (Quality Management System) Manual - The Boss Wants a 4 Page Manual - What to Do?

Find a registrar. Interview them and choose a registrar knowing what sort of system and functional data they will be looking for in order to verify compliance for registration. What Company Is Your Registrar?

You don't mention if you are/will be consulting regularly, but I have found value in Peter Block's books on consulting and measuring the value of your services.

[mirrorcrax]

You need to work hard in several areas, it may seem hard in the beginning, but you did the right thing by seeking help, which shows that you are concerned, and not just acting the role out, my advice to you is to work on two critical areas which are of equal importance:

1. Knowledge:
You need to read a lot (the cove is an excellent resource), ask a lot, draw assumptions and try to realize what should be done, ask a friend, ask people in similar situations.

there are many points to consider when beginning on your endeavour, one of the most important is: why are yo building a system? - do you intend to acquire new business? is there a deadline you have to meet? who has initiated this move and what are his (Real) intentions? and how are people in your company feeling about the whole deal?

once you understand the reasons behind establishing a system and the expectations and you establish and agree with top management and the intiator on a scope, a plan and responsibilities, you'll be ready to do a full review of your activities in coordination with each respective process owner.

During this review (which should be similar to what certification bodies refer to as pre-assessment) you could use a checklist based on the ISO9001:2000 requirements, and i suggest you get a professional certification body/consultant to do it for you just so to set you on the right track from the start.

Then comes the phase where you translate the gaps you've identified into actions to be taken, including actions relating to the development of documentation needed, form a team, don't work alone, get people involved through having an approved plan for this phase, hold meetings with the process owners and get to know how they conduct their activities, and discuss with them the modifications needed to fill in the gaps but don't incorporate it into the flow chart yet, reach a final as-is document describing your activities (flow chart, text based, etc.) then move on to the next department .........once you've completed all departments within the scope of your system, you could integrate them together and have a general process map for all your activities, next step would be to analyze the maps you got,to allocate the gaps previously identified by the certification body, along with the suggestions given to you by the process owners, you may have more meetings with them as needed to discuss the gaps and required modifications

Once you have an as-is set of process flow charts, and a list of the modifications needed for each one, you may obtain top management's approval on the modifications, then off to preparing your first draft

following the preparation of the first draft, you'll discuss it and agree with all process owners on it, review it, approve it, distribute it/share it

then begin implementation of the modifications........

(now this isn't a complete description of all project activities, and it also doesn't describe the project in relation to which requirements in the standard can be implemented in what way, those are points you should take some time to research and ask more specific questions about....so you wouldn't get swamped with information .... because your question is one that takes a lot of time to answer)

2. Communication:
You need to ensure that everyone understands that this system you're assissting them in establishing should reflect what they're doing, and so you have to keep it alive, by spreading it out and communicating with all departments concerned, as well as top management, empower yourself and obtain top management's support, you could ask for a period of time while you get your act together so that you wouldn't give conflicting output and become judged based on it, you have to know exactly what you're talking about and believe in it!

[Coury Ferguson]

Originally Posted by vinay_nagaraj

I have been hired as Quality Consultant by a company to guide the company fo ISO 9000 certification. What are the prerequeste things I need to know or should do? How will I prepare for this assignement?

Vinay,

I am with Jennifer on this one, when she said:

Originally Posted by Jennifer Kirley

Oh dear.

I find this question problematic because all of these questions should logically have been asked and answered before the hire. The old American saying for this situation is "Placing the cart before the horse."

How much do you know about ISO? What are your experiences and their depth in leading an organization to this process--what do you bring with you?

Being a consultant, has a lot of responsibility that goes with the title. A company (client) is expecting knowledge of the standard, implementation, and follow-up.

I am with the rest of the people here in the cove. We need a little more information about professional experience that you may have and which specific standard you are inquiring about.

[vinay_nagaraj]

Hi All,

Thanks for your generous advise.

I have made some points myself, can you please validate and add more if required?

As a management consultant following has to be done in order to prepare for the assignment.

• Understand sponsor objectives
• Understand current (As-Is) organizational structure
• Understand different functions and their structures along with special attention to infrastructure
• Collect As-Is details of processes/ practices
• Identify a Single Point of Contact (SPoC) from management institute who will coordinate the planning and execution of this pre- certification process analysis
• Coordinate and validate the interview schedules
• Coordinate the provision of access to the scope related process documents, artifacts and associated tool sets
• Ensure through the SPoC the availability of the identified stakeholders for the as-is assessment and the related workshops
• Understand current procedures being followed by reading through the process assets, going through demo of tools, interviewing relevant stakeholders.
• Consolidate findings and prepare Process Analysis Report
• Review the Process Analysis Report with SPoC
• Report or present the process analysis report, which has the existing procedures’ strengths and areas for improvement to the organization in scope
• Prepare an engagement plan along with the assumptions, constraints, risks and timelines

[Jennifer Kirley]

That's an interesting list. Where did it originate?

Most of the bullets are, in my view fit to take place within the scope of the work. What you need to bring with you in the assignment's preparation are the tools to conduct them as a well managed project: forms, data management databases, time management tools and so on.

What is your client's industry?