Top Management Change Prior to Certification

[QC Dave]

Greetings.

I have been getting us ready to go from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 this coming July (I know.... we're cutting it close). However, our top management person (who is also my boss) just suddenly left the company without notice. He had a good appreciation for and was becoming more and more involved with ISO 9001.

QUESTION. How do I get his replacement both educated and involved enough with ISO in order to pass and grow from this ISO certification, all while I continue to get us ready for the audit? He will have his hands full taking over and picking up the pieces from this situation as it is I know. Thus his time will be limited, no matter how important this is.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

QC Dave
Quality Control Manager

 

[AndyN]

Greetings.

I have been getting us ready to go from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 this coming July (I know.... we're cutting it close). However, our top management person (who is also my boss) just suddenly left the company without notice. He had a good appreciation for and was becoming more and more involved with ISO 9001.

QUESTION. How do I get his replacement both educated and involved enough with ISO in order to pass and grow from this ISO certification, all while I continue to get us ready for the audit? He will have his hands full taking over and picking up the pieces from this situation as it is I know. Thus his time will be limited, no matter how important this is.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

QC Dave
Quality Control Manager

You don't! You fill in for them the bits they need to know. You put a plan together to spend time coaching on the less important bits and you inform your CB auditor of the situation that they better be prepared for some deer-in-the-headlights unless you are going to take the wheel and drive. Should be fine.

 

[Kronos147]

You put a project into the books to capture the training journey for the new manager and attempt to retain it for organizational knowledge. Internally audit its effectiveness and do the PDCA cycle, if required.

Use the tools in the standard and your (business) management system.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Top management is required to support the QMS, not to be fluent in its language.

By July, I expect he will have a grasp on what is going on, and his responsibilities/authority within the system. If the system is already set up to provide resources, this minimum will probably be enough as long as he does not say "I don't care about anything but profits!" or some similarly inane thing. By July he should be able to at least describe what he would like to do to help move the organization forward. His involvement can be demonstrated in things like being an active presence in departmental meetings.

It would be a good idea to make the CB aware of this change, but these things happen. One man is not the organization, so you should do okay.

 

[Randy]

It's not a certification audit of top management so don't make a horribly huge mess out of jumping thru your butt trying to come up with Management 101+.

Does he know his basic responsibilities?

Does he understand the importance of your QMS?

Does he kinda understand the relationship between your company, the customers, suppliers, regulators and internal folks?

If your auditor tries to raise a stink about the lack of involvement with your new manager escort the auditor to the door and say beat it, call your CB and ask for someone with some common sense about the realities of business.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

and was becoming more and more involved with ISO 9001.

QUESTION. How do I get his replacement both educated and involved enough with ISO in order to pass and grow from this ISO certification,

First thing I would do is to stop referring to ISO and ISO 9001, as you don't want to send a wrong message to the new guy; focus, instead on your quality system, which is a subset of your business. He needs to provide leadership to the business as it relates to customer satisfaction and product conformity.

It just so happens that ISO 9001 has specific requirements on how the leadership of an organization is expected to guide and monitor the organization. Make sure he is aware of the requirements in the standard as it relates to the organization's top management and how he can demonstrate involvement and commitment towards quality.

But first and foremost, no organization should do anything because of ISO this and ISO that. If customer satisfaction is not perceived as an strategic component of customer retention and growth, there is no hope of a sustainable quality system to be in place.

Good luck.

 

[John Broomfield]

QCDave,

Of course your organization’s management system will show that your boss was brought up to speed on the system and what it required of her or him.

Schedule a management review of the performance of the system in terms of:

A. What it does well
B. What it does less than well
C. What actions are being taken about B above

Your colleagues may expect the new boss to show commitment to the system for delivering assurance of quality and all the necessary improvements. So knowing their A,B, and C is important.

Do not distract the new boss from the system by delving into ISO 9001:2015.

Please let us know how well you do,

John

 

[Stijloor]

Greetings.

I have been getting us ready to go from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 this coming July (I know.... we're cutting it close). However, our top management person (who is also my boss) just suddenly left the company without notice. He had a good appreciation for and was becoming more and more involved with ISO 9001.

QUESTION. How do I get his replacement both educated and involved enough with ISO in order to pass and grow from this ISO certification, all while I continue to get us ready for the audit? He will have his hands full taking over and picking up the pieces from this situation as it is I know. Thus his time will be limited, no matter how important this is.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

QC Dave
Quality Control Manager

In the future, think about this:

• Risk assessment (related to a key person leaving the organization)
• Organizational knowledge (see above)

 

[JoshuaFroud]

I echo, to a degree those above me. The requirements of the standard state that Top Management must be aware of and support the QMS. It does not state they much be "elbows deep" in it.

If you bring this person up to speed with where you are with the implementation and they continue to let you do what needs to be done and provide support where required. They are fulfilling their obligations.

My company went through the transition this month and the main assessment used for Top Management involvement was looking at Management Review related information and minutes, in addition to how they were resourcing the QMS.

Good luck, it will not be as bad as you expect.

 

[QC Dave]

QCDave,

Of course your organization’s management system will show that your boss was brought up to speed on the system and what it required of her or him.

Schedule a management review of the performance of the system in terms of:

A. What it does well
B. What it does less than well
C. What actions are being taken about B above

Your colleagues may expect the new boss to show commitment to the system for delivering assurance of quality and all the necessary improvements. So knowing their A,B, and C is important.

Do not distract the new boss from the system by delving into ISO 9001:2015.

Please let us know how well you do,

John

Well, we did pretty good in this audit. Our new C.O.O. did GREAT! It turns out that he was around when we were first certified to ISO 9001:2008 and he retained most of it.

We came out of the audit with only 3 minor non-conformances, which were easy to take care of. Our auditor was very understanding and helpful. Considering the fact that I've only been a QC Manager for less than a year and a half, I'm pretty pleased. I am grateful for everything I have learned on this forum.

Thank you all VERY much!

Respectfully,

QC Dave