Non-Mandatory Work Instructions

[scarpino]

Good morning. curious what you refer to any work instruction, or procedure that isn't mandatory from an ISO perspective. Would you most likely call it a "work guide"?

 

[geoffairey]

Good morning. curious what you refer to any work instruction, or procedure that isn't mandatory from an ISO perspective. Would you most likely call it a "work guide"?

Why would you have a work instruction which isn’t mandatory?
Who decides when it’s used? Are there particular circumstances?

either it’s needed or it’s not. If it’s not, get rid of it. If it’s only for certain circumstances, make those clear.
interested to hear the use case.

 

[Ron Rompen]

I cannot envision a scenario where calling it a 'work instruction' would result in a nonconformance against ISO 9001. You are free to call your documents whatever makes sense to you and your organization, but don't add confusion.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Sounds like an attempt to find a loophole to bypass an audit NC. Any “documented information” developed by the organization to aid in controlling a process is supposed to be controlled and followed by the workforce.

 

[Dazzur]

Sounds like an attempt to find a loophole to bypass an audit NC. Any “documented information” developed by the organization to aid in controlling a process is supposed to be controlled and followed by the workforce.

Whilst I agree with you that OP would be better just controlling the work instruction, or doing away with it altogether, 9001 says the following:

7.5.1 b) Documented information determined by the organisation as being necessary for the effectiveness of the quality management system.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but OP wouldn't exactly be incorrect either?

However, I suppose if the product/service/process were to change whilst this "work instruction" continues to be used, I imagine that wouldn't sit too well under 8.2.4?

 

[Ed Panek]

Just release it as an official document. Dont tie it into any BOMs or SOPs or WI. Dont put it on the training matrix. Dont bring it up during Management Review. Now you have an actual document without any consequences. Its unlikely to be discovered during an audit. Create a category called Reference Documents or similar. I dont think discovery of this document would cause auditor problems as long as it doesn't discuss a product requirements, etc,

 

[Bev D]

I have seen and used ‘reference’ or ‘best practice’ documents for tasks that can benefit from better approaches than the ‘mandated’ ones. These were never used for direct production or critical direct production support tasks such as maintenance or inventory control or material handling and storage etc. These activities involved expert subject matter expertise and judgment. Mostly statistical practices, problem solving, graphing techniques, experimental design, data analysis, etc. These activities typically were difficult to determine the conditions under which a specific approach was required or at least the best/most efficient. Training and guidance from true experts was utilized.

I have also seen ‘one signature’ documents used for things that are changed often as new situations occur and new knowledge is acquired - mostly for Customer support personnel. for example diagnostic trees…

It would be helpful if hte OP could explain their situation and why they want the instruction to be mandatory…

 

[Golfman25]

Good morning. curious what you refer to any work instruction, or procedure that isn't mandatory from an ISO perspective. Would you most likely call it a "work guide"?

As others have said, more specifics would be helpful.

Now over the years, I have collected various internal auditing forms, notes, etc. that we dump into our internal auditing file. Auditors are free to decide which they prefer to use as audit backup under their audit circumstances. Some like vanilla, some like chocolate. That to me, would be an example of "non-mandatory" instructions.

 

[Jean_B]

Using the right terminology might help

SHALL/MUST: From here |                                                                                | to here

CAN:          Options |     A   B      C               D                 E                   F         |                       

SHOULD:      Prefer   |         B                      D when something something                      |

 

[Randy]

Good morning. curious what you refer to any work instruction, or procedure that isn't mandatory from an ISO perspective. Would you most likely call it a "work guide"?

You can call that stuff "Baking Recipes" if you want, doesn't matter, nobody really cares. Do something, get it over with, describe and define it and move on.