6.4 Work environment of people? Or Work environment of equipment?

[jelly1921]

ISO9001:2008: 6.4 Work environment
The organization shall determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements

ISO9004:2000 6.4 Work environment
Management should ensure that the work environment has a positive influence on motivation, satisfaction and performance of people in order to enhance the performance of the organization. Creation of a suitable work environment, as a combination of human and physical factors, should include consideration of
— creative work methods and opportunities for greater involvement to realize the potential of people in the organization,
— safety rules and guidance, including the use of protective equipment,
— ergonomics,
— workplace location,
— social interaction,
— facilities for people in the organization,
— heat, humidity, light, airflow, and
— hygiene, cleanliness, noise, vibration and pollution.

ISO9000:2005: 3.3.4 work environment
set of conditions under which work is performed
NOTE Conditions include physical, social, psychological and environmental factors (such as temperature, recognition
schemes, ergonomics and atmospheric composition

It seems the work environment is for people, such as human factors.

Does it include the environment required by product realization? such as the approprate temperature of some machines.
If not, how to explain the requirement in ISO/TS 16949?
6.4.2 Cleanliness of premises
The organization shall maintain its premises in a state of order, cleanliness and repair consistent with the product and manufacturing process needs.

 

[Big Jim]

You should know that ISO 9004 is not an auditable standard. You cannot be held to it.

If you are registered to ISO 9001:2008, you cannot be audited to TS 16949. The additional requirement in TS 16949 does not apply to you unless you are registered to it.

In ISO 9001:2008 element 6.4 is says as you quoted:

"The organization shall determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements"

That's all there is to it. You need to determine the work environment needed make quality parts. Exactly what you need to do will depend on what you are making. If you are fabricating circuit boards and have determined you need a low particle count clean room, you need to provide it. If you are a machine shop and you work in extremely fine tolerances (tenths of thousands of an inch or finer) you will probably need to control temperature and humidity closely to keep the coefficient of thermal expansion from distorting the parts. If you are working with materials that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge damage then you will need to provide ESD controls (grounding mats, wrist straps, and so on).

 

[JaneB]

For certification, focus only on what ISO 9001 says in 6.4:

"The organization shall determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements"

You need to determine what "work environment" is need to make or develop product or services that meet the relevant specifications. People may like/prefer/want air conditioning, for example, and a lack of it on a hot day may make work conditions uncomfortable. But if the lack of air con has zero effect on conformity, it's irrelevant (as far as ISO 9001 goes).

You may have a very unhappy work force, but that's a different issue. Mind you, I would expect that a reasonably intelligent and enlightened company might choose to install air con because they could see it was a good thing to do for people. And, similarly, if non-ergonomic furniture was causing staff injury /illness /time off work, it would be an intelligent thing to fix, that any reasonable management review should consider. But I think you'd have difficulty in arguing that 'ISO 9001 says we have to'.