Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

[kjoberk]

Hello all! First post (but long time lurker!)

A little background: My repair station recently obtained our AS9110 certification. At that point, I was a key player in getting it started, implemented and seeing it all the way through the audits and certification (yesterday we had all of our NCRs approved and closed! Hooray!). Previously, we had ISO 9001:2008, so it was mostly just adding the necessary requirements for 9110. It was a very quick turn around time (we had two full months from the time we started to our stage 1 audit, with one day between stage 1 and stage 2). It was rough

Now, I have been tasked with basically being the project manager/consultant to our sister company who is currently trying to obtain their AS9100 Rev D certification -- they had started with ISO 2015, however, they stopped shy of their stage 1 audit, for reasons not terribly clear to me.

The problem I'm having is that there seems to be no motivation on the GM and the Assistant GMs part to get this taken care of. A very important contract is riding on this, and while I've tried to explain to them the seriousness of the situation, I have a Management Rep that is trying to cut corners.

Additionally, I feel almost at a loss right now. I've done a gap analysis, but I have absolutely zero formal training in ISO/AS/auditing/consulting/etc...all the things I probably should have, but my boss thinks I can handle it. Which is great, and also stressful, so I'm not really sure where to go from here. My gap analysis (which I'm pretty sure I did right) gave me a few things to work towards, but wholly implementing a new program with some push back from their management team is difficult.

Does anyone have any advice? I cannot go to paid training as of right now (hopefully in the future as I'm also the Management Rep for our own AS9110 system), but any helpful resources for implementing 9100 would be wonderful. I've been reading a lot on Elsmar Cove and have found most of it quite helpful -- at this point, I'm almost too overwhelmed to continue. I'm certainly not a consultant, which is okay with me, I'm up for difficult tasks and trying new things, but I just feel really out of place right now -- I can't think of a good starting point after the gap analysis, and the additional trouble of having a team that doesn't particularly care (despite it currently being a customer requirement for a contract) is adding to the problem

Your input is appreciated!

 

[Kronos147]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time

1. Have you created a timeline with benchmarks?
2. Is training an item?
3. Have you documented the GAP analysis?
4. Has this been presented to management team and have you asked for their input?
5. Have you tried to schedule regular meetings to move the project forward?

 

[Sidney Vianna]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

The problem I'm having is that there seems to be no motivation on the GM and the Assistant GMs part to get this taken care of. A very important contract is riding on this, and while I've tried to explain to them the seriousness of the situation, I have a Management Rep that is trying to cut corners.

So, to make things clear: you are being asked to assist with the upgrade of a MANAGEMENT system without the tacit (or otherwise) support and buy-in from the site top management.

While you might eventually see the process through certification, it will be extra painful. My recommendation? Hire an external trusted party to perform a focused audit of the leadership related requirements in AS9100D and, hopefully, the exercise will confirm your alleged lack of upper management commitment to the AS9100 implementation effort. It looks like they need a reality check.

Good luck.

 

[kjoberk]

Have you created a timeline with benchmarks?
Is training an item?
Have you documented the GAP analysis?
Has this been presented to management team and have you asked for their input?
Have you tried to schedule regular meetings to move the project forward?

I'm working on creating a timeline. The problem I personally face with creating a timeline is that I'm not at the sister site unless we're having a meeting and emails are responded to in less than a timely manner.

Training in what capacity? Training the GM/Asst. GM? They've had ISO training through their previous consultant.

So, the "management team" works in two ways. There is the GM/Asst. GM of the company I'm consulting for, and then there is my company's Director of Maintenance, who is pushing the sister company to get this done. My DOM is wonderful and fully embraces ISO/AS, however, he's also a busy guy and has a lot on his plate, which generally doesn't include babysitting our sister company.

We are currently having weekly to bi-weekly meetings to move forward. We have one schedule this Thursday to go over what we went over in our initial management review meeting.

Hope this answers your questions...

 

[kjoberk]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

So, to make things clear: you are being asked to assist with the upgrade of a MANAGEMENT system without the tacit (or otherwise) support and buy-in from the site top management.

While you might eventually see the process through certification, it will be extra painful. My recommendation? Hire an external trusted party to perform a focused audit of the leadership related requirements in AS9100D and, hopefully, the exercise will confirm your alleged lack of upper management commitment to the AS9100 implementation effort. It looks like they need a reality check.

Good luck.

Top Management for my company, which is the bigger of the two companies, is supportive and on board with the transition. Most of the push back is coming from the sister company's Management Rep (Asst. GM), and the GM, to put it tactfully, just wants to do his job. The problem with "old dogs" of the industry is that they don't want to do any of this "new fangled" stuff...they just want to come to work, do their job, and go home. Unfortunately, getting them to see past that has been difficult...its a culture that definitely needs to be changed.

We also don't have the funds currently to hire an external party to do a focused audit at this time. I may have our former Management Rep conduct a focused audit if his schedule allows, as he's been doing this a lot longer than I have, but he had to be focused elsewhere in his position.

 

[Big Jim]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

You are on a fools mission. Unless you get those two to step up to their responsibilities it is not likely that you get off the ground.

Consider your career options carefully.

 

[kjoberk]

That has been my feeling as well -- I feel lucky in that my boss (who is not either one of the two of the sister company) knows the issues going on with this and understands that this lays, not at my feet, but at theirs. After my gap analysis, I had an hour long meeting with my manager explaining all of the things I saw wrong and my concerns with the whole scenario. He sees the same concerns, and, despite many conversations between the two managers, I'm not sure much is going to change.

I will say that the Asst. GM, who fought me almost tooth and nail in creating a training plan, finally caved and stopped fighting me on it. I'm making sure to emphasize the importance of this for them, and their company. *sigh* We have a meeting tomorrow, and I'm continuing to try to be optimistic, I just feel like this is going to fall flat and ruin their current standing with a major contracting company.

 

[Coury Ferguson]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

Top Management for my company, which is the bigger of the two companies, is supportive and on board with the transition. Most of the push back is coming from the sister company's Management Rep (Asst. GM), and the GM, to put it tactfully, just wants to do his job. The problem with "old dogs" of the industry is that they don't want to do any of this "new fangled" stuff...they just want to come to work, do their job, and go home. Unfortunately, getting them to see past that has been difficult...its a culture that definitely needs to be changed.

We also don't have the funds currently to hire an external party to do a focused audit at this time. I may have our former Management Rep conduct a focused audit if his schedule allows, as he's been doing this a lot longer than I have, but he had to be focused elsewhere in his position.

I would think if you are getting the support from the Top Management, they need to push back on the ones that don't feel the same way.

 

[Wes Bucey]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

My experienced consultant's "spidey sense" is tingling. You use the term "sister company." (Is this the result of being an offshoot of your existing company or is it an acquisition?)

Depending on the circumstances of their creation, reasons for "foot dragging" at sister companies can vary, but they will rarely be resolved unless the one tasked to develop a program has REAL as well as apparent power and authority to oversee the transition.

You may need to "partner" with an executive with rank higher than the GM of the sister company, since you, personally, are not likely to be elevated to such rank. Failing this, even the most experienced consultant would find it nearly impossible to cajole and educate the impeding GM to get with the program.

 

[normzone]

re: Sister Company Moving to AS - First time "consultant" - Help?

Well put, [Wes].

I'm conflicted. Part of me wants to tell you " this is similar to how many of us got started, and we survived ".

The other part wants to say " you have been caught in a riptide - swim parallel to the shore until you are someplace else ".

:mg: