Interaction between processes

[Andrew Adam]

I'me a bit new to the quality standard, and have normaly only dealt with SHE work. But with IMS systems coming to the front, I got asked by a BSI auditor about the "interaction between processes" after admitting I didnt have a clue, I got a non-conformity. Can anyone help and explain in plain English what this is all about, or provide an example.


Yours confused

 

[RoxaneB]

Welcome to the Cove, Adam.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this thread, you'll find some links to threads of similiar topics.

But basically, "interaction of processes" is just that...your company has different processes, right? Purchasing, Sales, Production, Engineering, Safety, etc. Well....how do they interact? How do the outputs of one become the inputs to another? How do they support each other? Stuff like that.

 

[Statistical Steven]

Let me take a different approach. Depending on your industry, you might have intermediates that are further processed to make final product. You need to answer the following question "Have you assured that all in spec material from your intermediate process produces acceptable product when it is further processed. Usually in FDA industries we use 3 lots of materials, though those 3 lots might not be full representative of the inputs to the process. You need to assure that you have checked that variation in your inputs does not impact the output.

 

[rrofkar - 2009]

hrothghar

I'm not surte I understand your question because I do not know what SHE stands for. But anyway, the ISO 9000:2000 standard now requires that the processes be identified and that each process has an in put and an output. Therefore all processess would inter-relate to one degree or another. As an example a "Customer Satisfaction Process" would have inputs like on-time delivery, quality performance, customer service, and the output would be a ranking of how satisfied the customer is with our activities. The process would be an input to other processess such as Management Review, Corrective Action, etc.