J
John C
I notice a reluctance on behalf of Registrars to write up anything which is not clearly against a specific requirement of ISO 9000. In 4.17, the standard requires internal auditors to "determine the effectiveness of the quality system". Note that first we verify whether activities comply with the quality system - presumably the answer to that can be 'they do'. Then a jugement is asked as to whether this correctly implemented system is 'effective'.
This is obviously not limited to being objective. It becomes a judgement call. Yet it is of vital importance. I've heard a registrar say that a quality system may meet the requirements of the standard and yet produce junk. But we can't reconcile this requirement with anything but excellence and continuous improvement, which, I would think, was the purpose behind putting it in there.
Soon to be presenting myself as a consultant, I have to have a clear approach to this but it is probably the most difficult area to deal with. My conviction is that I should take the thing at face value and judge subjectively based on my own judgement of what is good and what is bad. But it looks like a minefield.
I'd appreciate the opinion and some feedback from the relevant experience of a cross section of correspondents; What do the consultants do? What do the in-house people and their colleagues expect? What do the registrars say?
thanks and rgds,
John C
This is obviously not limited to being objective. It becomes a judgement call. Yet it is of vital importance. I've heard a registrar say that a quality system may meet the requirements of the standard and yet produce junk. But we can't reconcile this requirement with anything but excellence and continuous improvement, which, I would think, was the purpose behind putting it in there.
Soon to be presenting myself as a consultant, I have to have a clear approach to this but it is probably the most difficult area to deal with. My conviction is that I should take the thing at face value and judge subjectively based on my own judgement of what is good and what is bad. But it looks like a minefield.
I'd appreciate the opinion and some feedback from the relevant experience of a cross section of correspondents; What do the consultants do? What do the in-house people and their colleagues expect? What do the registrars say?
thanks and rgds,
John C