Three Sub-Companies - Is One Quality Manual Enough?

[Biz91]

Hi all,
Just starting out developing an ISO 9001 system for the company I work for who employ around 25 people. I've read a lot of the threads and discussion here and found them very useful in terms of where to start, so thank you.
The company I work for is a very niche manufacturing company creating bespoke systems which are sold around the world. It is run as one company from the same premises but has three sub companies within it which develop and sell three very different products. My question concerns whether one quality manual which covers all three companies would be adequate or not? the quality objectives etc. will likely be the same for all three companies as they are all run by the same people. Where there are differences in procedure I will obviously document this and discuss them separately but overall, would one quality manual document be enough or should I create three completely separate documents?
I would be grateful for any thoughts, thanks.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Re: One quality manual enough?

Welcome to the Cove!

Regardless of the very different products, I would certainly support having just one quality manual because it's usually a higher-level document and as such wouldn't go into specifics on products. Procedures and work instructions can do that.

 

[isoalchemist]

Re: One quality manual enough?

I agree with Jennifer one Quality Manual can serve all three. Additionally consider how many of the procedure level documents can serve all three as well. Work instructions will certainly differ, but depending on your organization the rest should be fairly similar