Leadership Responsibility in an ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System

[Anubala]

Hi,

My company is ISO 9001:2008 certified and it is small company. I have been here for last 10 years .i was a technical person but moved to Quality Dept. I was a quality Coordinator and now MR . I make internal audit schedule and conduct internal audit, receiving customer feedback,make corrective action and have some meeting with Top management people regarding improvement plan.The whole process we will discuss in MR meeting.For surveillance audit or re-certification audit, i am the key person that i will interact with CB auditor. Everything regarding quality moves around me and i will get some information from Top management(CEO,ED,Director). Now Leadership is introduced in ISO 9001:2015. I have read the commitments of leadership also.So my question is - The responsibility which was taken by me will be shared by leadership ( Dept or Process heads), they will interact with CB auditor corresponding to their departments. Who will conduct Management Review meeting? Where we have to mention about the Leadership( Single member or Group of people). May be my questions are very basic but im lacking in that. Before i moved to Quality dept, they already got certified. So now i have to do this Transition to ISO 2015. So i got lot of questions, don't know where to ask. We cannot ask simple things to our CB auditor. This November we have surveillance audit but our CB auditor advised us to move to 2015 version before that.

Thanks,
Anu

 

[Kchnwtch]

From what I understand, 2015 requires people to be designated as Process Owners. Usually, I would think those people would be in some management role within your QMS already, but it would depend on the size of your workplace. I have a very small workplace, so the process owners will end up being the same people as on the management review team. (we don't upgrade until next year)

I think the process owner idea was created to involve management more directly than in the past. In the meantime, although 2015 doesn't require that you have a management rep, it doesn't say you can't have one, so you can probably continue in your current role as meeting convener, etc.

It seems to me to be a good idea to have your process owners prepare to talk with the CB auditor. If they are the same folks as are already on your management team, you may have to inform them that yes, they will have a larger, more important role than they had in the past. If your process owners are not associated already with your current QMS, it may be a good time to select folks outside the management team as process owners. It could be a way to get new energy and new commitment into the system, and you might get fewer protests about the changes.

 

[al40]

I would suggest taking a look at the PEAR (process effectiveness assessment report), used in AS9100 standard it will give you a good idea where you are and I would recommend that it be completed by the managers responsible for your primary processes. Do a search in Elsmar I believe there are several posts on use of the PEARs.

Best wishes,
Al40