Section 7.5 of ISO9001:2000 for a Quality Manual - Charity organisation

[BrettFishburn]

Hi everyone, I am writing, or attempting to write might be more accurate, my first quality manual, which is being made a little more difficult as I work for a company which is the official charitable organisation for the Catholic Church in Sydney. So the majority of our services are funded by the government and are covered by multiple regulatory bodies.

Where I am having the difficulty is in section 7.5.

Has anyone out there written such a document for a charity organisation before, or would anyone be able to offer any assistance before I go grey in my early 30's.

 

[JaneB]

Re: Section 7.5 of ISO9001:2000 for a Quality Manual

Congratulations on the project. But early 30s is still too early to go grey, and there's no need to

Can you be a bit more explicit re. what kind of difficulty you are having with section 7.5? For example, are you having trouble in interpreting it and applying it to your charitable organisation? You see, the better context & background you provide, the better & more targeted help we can offer.

Assuming you *are* having difficulty understanding it, take a step back & up, and see if that helps (try not to see if you really do have grey on the back of your head).

This section 7 is all about the 'guts' of whatever it is that your organisation does. If you're the ATO, it would be about collecting taxes, for example. If you're a State Revenue Office, it would be similar - collecting revenue for the particular state. When you're a charity, it's still about providing the services that you do, whatever they may be.

Yes, it's quite different applying this clause in a manufacturing plant than in a charitable organisation or an NPA, but that's part of the strength and power of 9001, that it can be applied to so many different types of organisation!

It makes no difference that the "majority of your services are funded by the government" - OK, you're not a profit-making business, but that's merely where the $$ comes from. Your drivers or quality policy and objectives won't be high on profit - but they can / should be strong on meeting your charter or mission or however you express it.

Have a look at this professional organisation site - they have 9001. So does this nonprofit counselling service http://www.reconnexion.org.au/. And Wesley Mission (Sorry, I know they're Uniting Church, not Catholic!).

Back to section 7.5. You need to:

• PLan and deliver your services, & have 'suitable' controls in place (eg, you don't just drive around with a bucket of cash and toss it out the window at anyone who looks needy, do you?)
• Validate if possible - may not be
• Identify & trace as required - an example MIGHT be if the government provided some particular amount of $$ for a particular purpose - you'd need to be able to demonstrate that those $$ DID actually reach the target recipient group
• Customer property - may not apply etc
• 'Preserve' produce - eg, if you deliver Christmas hampers, you don't want them to arrive all broken up and damaged, do you? And so on.

See, I could go on guessing for quite a while, but I'd really rather go have a large brandy (it's been a long & tiring day) and ask you to explain a bit more about what you need. Hope this helps though.

Another avenue of info might be to look up the JAS-ANZ register & find other nonprofit/charitable organisations who are certified, - you might be able to find specific people to discuss with, or exchange ideas. I Googled & found this site is currently implementing.

 

[joshua_sx1]

Re: Section 7.5 of ISO9001:2000 for a Quality Manual

Just thinking out loud…
…I was wondering of what would be the significant value-added of having an ISO certification in a charitable organization? My point is, you will always have “customers” either you are certified or not, and the intended “customers” usually don’t concern on how you are managing your QMS as long as they got benefited from your process… unless, of course it is the requirements of the one who is funding your organization (such as government bodies)… but then again, (I’m thinking again) the money that will be used for certification and maintaining that certification can be still somehow used or invested more to humanitarian activities instead… whatever, it’s just only my pov…

…anyway, in addition to JaneB recommendations, here’s mine: clause 7.5 of ISO 9001 is all about production and service provision… the better approach is to itemize the sub-clauses and one by one identify each requirement that is suitable to your operations… e.g. 7.5.1 is telling about the requirements to control production & service provision, I guess, if you are going to apply this in a charitable organization, it would be meant of planning and carrying-out of your charitable programs under controlled conditions… and controlled conditions include the availability of information that describes the characteristics of each charitable programs… the availability of written procedures (as necessary) that describes how you are going to execute your charitable programs… the use of suitable equipment (such as transportation, medical devices, equipment, etc)… the required implementation of any monitoring and measurement (such as statistics)… and the implementation of your release, delivery and post-delivery activities associated with your charitable programs (of course, or any programs you are implementing)…

…now, once you finish clause 7.5.1, go to 7.5.2 requirements and do the itemize process identification again… at this stage, you don’t need to make everything perfect or correct… just try to complete the entire clause requirements and then you review them with the help from others so you will have another inputs (a.k.a. brain storming)…

…the process should be enjoying (just like helping unlucky human beings)…

…you can also visit this site : http://charitytrusts.blogspot.com/2007/07/ngos-and-charitable-institutions.html - they are quality management in charities…

…goodluck and congratz also….

 

[JaneB]

Re: Section 7.5 of ISO9001:2000 for a Quality Manual

Just thinking out loud…
I was wondering of what would be the significant value-added of having an ISO certification in a charitable organization? ... My point is, you will always have “customers” either you are certified or not, and the intended “customers” usually don’t concern on how you are managing your QMS as long as they got benefited from your process… unless, of course it is the requirements of the one who is funding your organization (such as government bodies)… but then again, (I’m thinking again) the money that will be used for certification and maintaining that certification can be still somehow used or invested more to humanitarian activities instead… whatever, it’s just only my pov...

In some cases, it's a choice, because the organisation involved sees there will be internal value and benefits in improving their system of quality management.

In other cases it is imposed upon them by their major client (funds provider, government department etc) as a condition of continued funding. For example, a number of NPA (Non Profit Associations) in a particular field here in Oz were made to get it, because they deliver services on behalf of a government department. Said govt dept decided it was more effective (and overall LESS costly) if they offloaded the auditing and checking of the service providers to a third party via external certification, rather than keep trying to do it themselves. They provided some funds to help with the costs.

 

[BrettFishburn]

JaneB, Thank you very much for assisting with this, and sorry for the vaugness of my post.
The issue I am having and is probably due to lack of experience in this field, but getting my head around how these requirements can be applied to the different programs we do. We have a very wide range of different programs, ranging from Adoption to marrige councelling, from Age Care to Business Solutions (Used to be called Sheltered Workshops) and a lot of others.
This might also come to be an issue that I need to speak to more of the people in this organisation to see exactly what is done, I'm also new to the company.
Don't worry about the whole Catholic thing, I am an Athiest, I'm just trying to spread the word of quality (That joke could probably get me in trouble here).
I will go through the links you have provided and see how others have delt with this, agai thank you for your help.
Joshua SX1, again I would like to thank you for you assistance, I learnt very early in life there is no reason to bang your head against a wall when you can ask for help from someone who has already done that.
To answer your thought about why we are seeking certification, it is a two fold answer, the first and most obvious is the benifits that a QMS brings to any organisation, and the second being that as JaneB said the Australian Government likes certified companies, we have not been requested to get it, just simply suggested that it would be benificial to upcoming tenders.

 

[JaneB]

The issue I am having and is probably due to lack of experience in this field, but getting my head around how these requirements can be applied to the different programs we do. We have a very wide range of different programs, ranging from Adoption to marrige councelling, from Age Care to Business Solutions (Used to be called Sheltered Workshops) and a lot of others.

Yup, that sounds like a very wide range! Is the intent to get the entire
range in the certification scope, or to limit it? Often helps to limit it at the start (more manageable) then spread it out as you gain experience.

Have you had any experience with 9001 before? If not, I'd run (not walk) to get yourself onto a good local training program. First you need more knowledge. I'd like to see you less worried about 'section 7.5' and more focussed on understanding what your organisation does. The various sections & clauses can come later. Also - I'm strongly in favour of a QM that is written around YOUR organisation and what it does and very strongly agin any manual that structures itself around the Standard and its clauses.

This might also come to be an issue that I need to speak to more of the people in this organisation to see exactly what is done, I'm also new to the company.

I would definitely start by finding out about the organisation itself - in essence, taking the 'process approach'. Because you need to know what it does, and roughly how (not the detail at this point).

I would not advise attempting to start writing any kind of manual at this point, nor trying to go clause by sub-clause through the Standard unless you are very familiar with it and/or you like grey hair. That way lies madness IMO.

I'd start with going to each of the areas/programs, and looking to find out what they do - ideally, look for managers/exec types who can give you the overview, as the people at the coalface are often too buried in the detail:
* Who are your clients?
* what do you aim to do for them?
* what 'kicks off' the process (eg, do we approach them/they approach us, etc)? what are the inputs?
* what is the result (ie, outputs) at the end? eg, it's pretty clear with adoptions!
* Broadly speaking, how do we deliver that? - here, just try & get an overall idea of the main stages/sequence/activities in the process, & jot it down roughly as a 'flowchart'.

Because you may find as you do this in different areas, that although the actual details differ, actually there are similarities.

Don't worry about the whole Catholic thing

I wasn't There are many beliefs in the world and everyone is entitled to their own.

the Australian Government likes certified companies, we have not been requested to get it, just simply suggested that it would be beneficial to upcoming tenders.

Yup, where it isn't mandated, frequently they favour certified organisations over non - they've generally found that they get better results from the former.

 

[BrettFishburn]

Yes the intention of the company is to cover the entire range, with maybe the exception of the Business Solutions, that will be decided after I do a gap analysis there.
I haver had experience with ISO certification, but my previous experience was with re-certification, so mainly audits and revising the documentation, this is the first time I have worked for a company that is going for certification for the first time.
I worked for Spotless Services Australia for a couple of years as an internal auditor and compliance, that is where I became addicted to the concept of quality, and aware that most people have the complete wrong idea about it.

 

[Coury Ferguson]

Look at the Standard, and remove the References to "Production/Product" and replace it with "Service".

It might make some better sense when you look at it that way. But, this is just my opinion, and thought.

 

[BrettFishburn]

Thank you for the though, but have already defaced my copy with writing Service everywhere product appears.

I have further information as to my problem, now that I have come back from site visits and got my head back into this manual I have remembered the exact issue I am faceing:mybad:. The measuring and monitering of the service. The majority of our services do not show up as successful until possibly years later and alot of our customers are the members of society that are the hardest to check up on, we deal alot with mental illness, drug and alcohol dependancy, homelessness, dimenthia and various levels of disability.

So can anyone suggest a way to fit the measuring and monitoring section to area's that cannot be successfully monitored.
Or am I looking at this in the wrong way, should I be looking to monitor the actual process not the effectiveness of it, as that seems to be the only truely messurable area in this equation. (By the way I hate variables and this is full of them)

I have temporarily moved onto Section 8 (Appropriate to be the last section of ISO9001:2000, as this is the term for a crazy person in the US armed forces, and I have gone crazy by this section), but I have to get back to the problem soon. Any and all help woill be greatly appreciated, even if you just tell me to run off to a monestry, which will be hard for an athiest.

 

[BrettFishburn]

Thank you all for your advice, it got my head going in the right direction which was what I needed, I have submitted my first draft of the proposed quality manual to my Quality Manager and have gotten positive feedback so far.

I had everything in my head but just got off track from thinking to much, I have a terrible habbit of over thinking things sometimes.