Corrective Action Documents - Numbering Records and Policies?

[QAMTY]

Hi everybody

Two doubts I face now, Hope you can supoport me.

In the company, I´m solving a complaint of a user regarding a malfunctioning Projector

The treatment I have decided is,

After a full analysis, I decided theat the problem was the age of projector, and other reason was more ours of usage than permitted by the supplier

Final decision.

Buy a new projector but also releasing one policy to revise the state of projectors every year and a document of recommendations of use for users located in the wall near the new projector.

Questions
1 the records, fishbone analysis, quotation of suppliers,etc., all these documents should be numbered?, for example the complaint was numbered COMP1, should the records be numbered related to the name of complaint or is not necessary?

2 In the case of policies and recommendations, where do they fit in ISO clauses? for numbering?

Is needed to identify them in relationship to iso clauses or the number or complaint? or just to name them " Recomendations of use" and Policy to revise Projectors?

I´m somehwat confused.

Regards

 

[Pancho]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

So your correction is to buy a new projector, and your CA is to modify your office maintenance checklist to review the state of the projectors once a year? That sounds reasonable.

As far as recording the above, why don't you note in the CA record that you "issued Purchase Requisition #X" to effect the correction", and "modified maintenance checklist Y to effect the CA"?

I wouldn't backlink from the Requisition to the NC or CAR but, of course, you can if you see a benefit in it. I certainly would not reference the standard either.

Good luck!
Pancho

 

[QAMTY]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

Thanks Pancho

But in the case of tracking the maintenance checklist document
It is not neccessary to keep it into the ISO system? I mean
not to follow an ISO numbering nor residing in the same storage area?

Could it be stored in some area of the server outside of ISO documentation
simply as a group of documents related to IT practices?
finding them as "checklist of Hardware", "Policies for changing hardware",etc?

Thanks

 

[Pancho]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

Thanks Pancho

But in the case of tracking the maintenance checklist document
It is not neccessary to keep it into the ISO system? I mean
not to follow an ISO numbering nor residing in the same storage area?

Could it be stored in some area of the server outside of ISO documentation
simply as a group of documents related to IT practices?
finding them as "checklist of Hardware", "Policies for changing hardware",etc?

Thanks

If maintenance is a key process of your business, then you must keep it with your QMS. If not, then I guess you could choose to keep its documents separately. But frankly, I can't see a benefit in keeping multiple document systems. It will likely result in many obsolete and half-forgotten documents that no one uses.

We keep all our management systems documents together.

 

[QAMTY]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

Thanks Pancho


I see now better.

My best rregards

 

[QAMTY]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

Pancho

Other question

How do you manage specs e.g.
generic specs for painting, generic specifications
of welding that you use for all the projects?

Do they keep a special numbering related to ISO
or a simple names like "specifications of painting?

Obviously, supposing you have a key process of design based in 7.4 clause,
in this case, this kind of documents should be referenced somewhere.
Here comes the need of identification of such specifications.

What is your point of view?

Thanks

 

[Pancho]

Re: Numbering records and policies?

How do you manage specs e.g. generic specs for painting, generic specifications of welding that you use for all the projects?

Do they keep a special numbering related to ISO or a simple names like "specifications of painting?

We keep our standard internal specs within our QMS wiki. The documents have a descriptive title, for example [Spec: Steel Tube] or [Spec: Powdercoat Paint]. Specs are linked from many other documents as required. There are links to the spec index or specific materials or services in the procedures and instructions that need them: proposals, contract negotiation and review, purchasing (BTW here's 7.4), engineering, receiving, testing, etc.

But hardly any of our documents reference the ISO 9001 standard. Nor do we assign numbers to the documents based on the standard nor otherwise. The wiki assigns URLs to each document, but it is much easier to find documents by a link, than by their name, URL or number.

Obviously, supposing you have a key process of design based in 7.4 clause, in this case, this kind of documents should be referenced somewhere. Here comes the need of identification of such specifications.

In order to help external auditors, we maintain a short writeup in our wiki that explains, clause by clause, how we meet the standard. Each clause in this writeup has links to the relevant process descriptions and procedures in our QMS. But as I said, for the most part, we keep references to the standard out of the working documents themselves.

Users find documents they need in one of several ways:

1. Indices. Each of about 20 key processes/subprocesses has an index of docs, and each of these indexes may have between 25 and 100 indexed documents. The index for all documents belonging to a particular process is displayed as a menu right on every doc of that process, and each entry in this index is a hotlink. The menus are outlined in whichever way makes more sense for that process. Some documents are indexed in more than one process. We also maintain a few indexes of documents that are not tied to a particular process, such as the [NX: Guide Specifications] themselves. As with other indexes and related docs, guide specs display a menu of all other guide specs as a list to the right of the page.
2. Contextual links within each document. For example, if you are in a Purchasing work instruction, you are likely to have hot-links right where you need them to the relevant specs that you must include in the PO itself. (In fact, some of these specs are in a portion of the wiki that is accessible from outside our network so that they can be linked directly from an email or other external doc.) Users are trained to create hot-links in documents where they feel one may be missing. This is probably the most useful way to find documents, and one that is sorely missing outside of wiki- or custom db-based systems.
3. Search. The wiki can search all documents for any text in them.

What is your point of view?

If you depend only on the name or a number to locate a particular document, you are making your users work too hard. Most won't bother.

For more info, see Sample QMS Wiki Organization.

Good luck!
Pancho