I can appreciate your trying to make the best of your documented system. I applaud
your conviction to right what may seem to have been a wrong. However, the bottom line is still - the company you are talking about is registered, they made it with what they have!
The wrong lies probably not as much with the Quality Policy or the documented system as it does with the auditor who chose to look the other way
or elected to sit in the conference room and drink coffee for the whole registration audit.
In addition, it is pretty difficult to call something good or bad if no one notices it anyway. (Does the falling tree make a sound if no one is there to hear it?) Both good and bad are in the eyes of the beholder. If no one beholds it then you have no good or bad.
The only person to notice the policy you are talking about thus far has been you. You have noticed it because you have chosen this line of toil as your life's challenge. Your personal convictions go beyond the certificate on the wall. Inherently you want the reason for the certificate to be legitimate. My guess is that not another person in the company you are talking about could care less about what the words say or do not say;
just make sure the ISO auditor buys it.
Sometimes that is not all that bad either. I know many companies who are doing the right things and are aggressive as well as progressive and make a good product but their policy is no better or worse or different than the one we have all been discussing for the past week. Performance and results must carry a higher priority than do the words that structure our approach. The policy has no power if not acknowledged.
I am in your position as well. I go through the challenge of reviewing, fixing, and convincing over and over again. Words, words that are dictated by the standards, that's all it is. I have learned to concentrate on the actual output, the performance and results, well before I do the words. Intent before content!
Good luck on your re-write project. Do your best, as I am sure you have many times before and will again, maybe many times again. Make it agree with ISO, as if anyone cares, or even knows, anyway. Your greatest work will more likely go unnoticed but it is an existential accomplishment to just have done it.
