Developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interested Parties

[rdanis]

Hi,
My company is an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacture company. We have all procedures required by v2008 and quality policy (set by company's group) in place. Now we're preparing our self to migrate to the v2015.

Currently I'm developing the procedure to determine the context of the organization and the interested parties.
My plan is to list all of the interested parties and then review the compliance against their requirements. But, that's all that I can think so far, so my question are:
1. Ideally who should perform the listing process? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
2. Base on the list and the status, who should determine the context of the company? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
3. Or, once we have the list of the interested parties and the compliance status, does it mean we have determined the context of the company and comply to ISO requirement?

 

[oldmanian]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

rdanis,
We are at the exact same point and what I have done is started a list that I will take to a management meeting where the owners can put in what they want to add. I have found that if I start the list and get others involved as well they will take better ownership of a problem. I find that the list so far has all our customers (30 plus) all our suppliers (100 plus) our owners and our employees so the list can get large without trying to hard. Good luck with your progress

 

[yodon]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

I haven't started down the path just yet but have been considering things (like SWOT for context). I think the approach oldmanian describes is probably the right way to get things going - start with a strawman, at least.

I am curious about the level of detail necessary for the 'interested parties.' Would it suffice to generalize 'customers' and 'suppliers' rather than listing them individually?

 

[metsmark]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

oldmanian & rdanis,

Same point here, I do not think the interested parties list necessarily needs to include each customer and each supplier, as long as your requirements for each are the same. Thoughts?

 

[Kchnwtch]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

We're a small business, and I was told by our ISO consultant to keep the numbers of interested parties low, or at least in groups, such as "customers" and "suppliers." The theory is that the interested parties should have some sort of demonstrable effect on the QMS (even if infinitesimally small, I suppose...), or some mention in planning documents or management meetings, and that such effects could be audited. If you have a list of hundreds of "types" of interested parties, that could make for a lot of unnecessary paperwork or abnormally long meetings.

 

[rdanis]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

metsmark & Kchnwtch,
I do agree with you to keep the list as short as and as simple as possible. Luckily, my company produces ready use (final) product sold to local market only.
May be the customer list can be longer if we produce custom products for each customer worldwide with different law and nature requirements, but we can still group them to make a shorter list.

 

[in_cr_ove]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

Hi,
My company is an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacture company. We have all procedures required by v2008 and quality policy (set by company's group) in place. Now we're preparing our self to migrate to the v2015.

Currently I'm developing the procedure to determine the context of the organization and the interested parties.
My plan is to list all of the interested parties and then review the compliance against their requirements. But, that's all that I can think so far, so my question are:
1. Ideally who should perform the listing process? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
2. Base on the list and the status, who should determine the context of the company? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
3. Or, once we have the list of the interested parties and the compliance status, does it mean we have determined the context of the company and comply to ISO requirement?

QMS is a system devised for a purpose (objectives). it puts forward a plan (method) to achieve the purpose. every plan has some assumptions that may be internal or external to the organisation. these assumptions may change over time & may necessitate recalibrating the plan (QMS).
this is the context.
the organisation may list such assumptions. involvement of all functions/ processes is important to capture major internal & external issues. the list may be reviewed periodically & corrective action may be taken where needed.

 

[rdanis]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

Coming back to this topic,
I've created the procedure as attached, please comment.

 

[JoShmo]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

Hi,
My company is an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacture company. We have all procedures required by v2008 and quality policy (set by company's group) in place. Now we're preparing our self to migrate to the v2015.

Currently I'm developing the procedure to determine the context of the organization and the interested parties.
My plan is to list all of the interested parties and then review the compliance against their requirements. But, that's all that I can think so far, so my question are:
1. Ideally who should perform the listing process? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
2. Base on the list and the status, who should determine the context of the company? departmental manager, top management or "management representative"?
3. Or, once we have the list of the interested parties and the compliance status, does it mean we have determined the context of the company and comply to ISO requirement?

Why do you feel a need for a "procedure"? It's a simple task, best accomplished at a management review, by your management team. All that they have to do is clearly indicate who they believe their interested parties are, what are the issues affacting those and then figure out what the organization is supposed to be doing in the marketplace. You have also to consider what is going to happen to your quality policy (like if it's really accurate) and your objectives from that understanding.

 

[rdanis]

Re: Asking help in developing procedure for Determining Company's Context And Interes

I understand that it's not mandatory to have such a procedure, but talking about "feeling", it's too subjective and debatable. Actual reason is too "cliche" as my company is a kind of traditional company. Anyhow, thanks for the input, I like the simpler method.