P
Peter13
Greetings to everyone,
I believe I have found myself in a fairly common situation - I'm a lower tier worker (barely above intern, really) in a company which has just been compelled to obtain an ISO 9000 certificate by one of our major clients. The company is small, less than 20 people, most of which are too busy to commit any time, so naturally the task of laying the groundwork for implementing an ISO 9000-compliant QMS was passed down to me. I, of course, have no experience in matters of management systems, quality-related or not.
After a few days of research, I'm having serious problems with pin-pointing what is the scope of a QMS, and exactly how meticulously the processes should be presented/documented. We are an electrical contractor which has many potential 'products' - installation services, on-site measurement services, as well as the design and construction of electrical cabinets (Motor control centers, distribution boards etc.) and their on-site installation. Hell, sometimes people want JUST the cabinet design or JUST a software modification. When I try to flowchart the processes and possible deviations I get over a hundred process 'bubbles'. Which ones should be made into documented procedures? Really, should they be documented in any way at all? Technically, I'm fairly certain the actual REALIZATION (process whereby the product is designed, constructed, shipped and installed) of a product affects its quality, does it not? But then I find Quality manuals of companies that appear to be in a similar (not identical) line of business, and seem to have more personnel - yet the procedures declared as documented in their Quality Manual are only the 6 mandatory ones plus a few others (usually Purchasing and Design and Development). This seems extremely minimalistic, but apparently it is enough to pass an audit?
Truthfully, such a minimalist QMS would be ideal for us, but I find it nigh-impossible to determine when I am satisfying the bare minimum requirements, and when I am simply dodging a requirement in a way that will be identified as a non-conformance. In a particular, I find it somewhat counter-intuitive that, if I understand correctly, it is possible to completely ignore "core" production processes in the QMS, because they, hmmm... although they directly determine the quality of the final product, they are not really a part of a QMS - the QMS appears to be a set of processes that ensure that feedback from the core processes is obtained, recorded, analyzed and acted upon in order to improve the core processes... yet the QMS does not need to include any procedures describing the core processes themselves?
I'm sorry for the somewhat discombobulated post, but I suppose my question is - Can I really omit documentation of our core production and design processes (like guidelines how to design and create electrical documentation, put together electrical cabinets etc. - these are currently largely undocumented, based on technician experience/knowledge) because all that is important is the recording and feedback mechanism (How do we know the product satisfied the customer, how will we remember this info, what can we do to improve that in the future, how will the improvement be implemented)?
I believe I have found myself in a fairly common situation - I'm a lower tier worker (barely above intern, really) in a company which has just been compelled to obtain an ISO 9000 certificate by one of our major clients. The company is small, less than 20 people, most of which are too busy to commit any time, so naturally the task of laying the groundwork for implementing an ISO 9000-compliant QMS was passed down to me. I, of course, have no experience in matters of management systems, quality-related or not.
After a few days of research, I'm having serious problems with pin-pointing what is the scope of a QMS, and exactly how meticulously the processes should be presented/documented. We are an electrical contractor which has many potential 'products' - installation services, on-site measurement services, as well as the design and construction of electrical cabinets (Motor control centers, distribution boards etc.) and their on-site installation. Hell, sometimes people want JUST the cabinet design or JUST a software modification. When I try to flowchart the processes and possible deviations I get over a hundred process 'bubbles'. Which ones should be made into documented procedures? Really, should they be documented in any way at all? Technically, I'm fairly certain the actual REALIZATION (process whereby the product is designed, constructed, shipped and installed) of a product affects its quality, does it not? But then I find Quality manuals of companies that appear to be in a similar (not identical) line of business, and seem to have more personnel - yet the procedures declared as documented in their Quality Manual are only the 6 mandatory ones plus a few others (usually Purchasing and Design and Development). This seems extremely minimalistic, but apparently it is enough to pass an audit?
Truthfully, such a minimalist QMS would be ideal for us, but I find it nigh-impossible to determine when I am satisfying the bare minimum requirements, and when I am simply dodging a requirement in a way that will be identified as a non-conformance. In a particular, I find it somewhat counter-intuitive that, if I understand correctly, it is possible to completely ignore "core" production processes in the QMS, because they, hmmm... although they directly determine the quality of the final product, they are not really a part of a QMS - the QMS appears to be a set of processes that ensure that feedback from the core processes is obtained, recorded, analyzed and acted upon in order to improve the core processes... yet the QMS does not need to include any procedures describing the core processes themselves?
I'm sorry for the somewhat discombobulated post, but I suppose my question is - Can I really omit documentation of our core production and design processes (like guidelines how to design and create electrical documentation, put together electrical cabinets etc. - these are currently largely undocumented, based on technician experience/knowledge) because all that is important is the recording and feedback mechanism (How do we know the product satisfied the customer, how will we remember this info, what can we do to improve that in the future, how will the improvement be implemented)?