ISO 9001 Quality Manual - Is it OK for me to use content from my previous company?

[AudreyPrue]

Re: ISO 9001 Quality Manual - Is it OK for me to use content from my previous company

I do this... as long as you leave out anything that is confidential. Basics are basics.

 

[kgott]

Re: ISO 9001 Quality Manual - Is it OK for me to use content from my previous company

To my way of thinking the way to deal with this is to say nothing to anyone and work on the ‘what goes around comes around.’ rule.

If I learn new knowledge at one employer and bring it a new employer, is the new employer benefiting from knowledge obtained from another business? Does my new knowledge belong to the past employer or to me, or to the new employer?

Sometimes copyright laws are designed to only work one way. Employers are happy to benefit from employee breaches of copyright but don’t like the other half of what goes around....

I see lots of quality and safety policies and accept for a few changes here and there they are all the same, all saying the same things. There are only so many ways a document transmittal form can be designed and everyone in the same game is looking for the best way to design a document transmittal form.

Employers have to recognise that they sometimes benefit from employees breaches of copyright. It goes on a lot and to some extent it has become accepted as an unwritten rule in the form of ‘the employer doesn’t ask and the employee doesn’t tell.'

The argument about copyright could also be made about training. Many of my previous employers complain about training someone then they leave but they don’t complain about someone coming on board who has just been trained by somebody else.

 

[keres]

Re: ISO 9001 Quality Manual - Is it OK for me to use content from my previous company

A good question. In my country everything that creates employee owned company in which it works. In this sense it is not would be appropriate to use these developments in the new company. But in Japan may be different?

 

[Big Jim]

Re: ISO 9001 Quality Manual - Is it OK for me to use content from my previous company

Mike,

It is a very common thing for a quality manager to install a quality manual and procedures from a prior company, but one big risk is that often they don't tailor it to the new company.

I recently wrote a quality manual for a client that was upgrading from AS9100B to AS9100C. The old manual was brought in by the prior quality manager from his prior job, and it was a horrible mismatch. It was far too detailed and clunky for their smaller company. They were very excited to obtain a manual that fit their needs better.

As others have said, the basics are the basics, and certain things tend to be in nearly all quality manuals, but the specifics need to be tailored to your needs.