Buckeye001
Starting to get Involved
This may be a no brainer for seasoned ISO 9001 pros, but since I have less than two years under my belt and I have no access to the previous QMS Manager, I'm on my own. Our company has one file that contains all 20 Process Maps for our QMS. As I was about to start a round of Internal Audits, I asked all Process Owners to update their maps (many were out of date and inaccurate). This document has been in a workflow over a month and all owners have not reviewed (I have tried to expedite). I continued with the audits and told Internal Auditors to use the map from the unreleased document--this allowed them to audit against any changes pro-active owners made to their maps. In a meeting this week in preparation for our Management Review Meeting, I mentioned what I did--used unreleased process map. I had one owner pitch a fit so I explained my reasoning for using the unreleased document. The explanation was not accepted.
I realize there are several issues here, but I would like an opinion on unreleased document. Was it wrong to use the Process Maps that were changed by owners--even though the complete document was not released? Our review/approval software can generate a list showing when people signoff, so I have evidence the pro-active owners reviewed and approved their map. Of course another owner could change a map that isn't theirs, but I would hope a level of professionalism could be assumed.
I realize there are several issues here, but I would like an opinion on unreleased document. Was it wrong to use the Process Maps that were changed by owners--even though the complete document was not released? Our review/approval software can generate a list showing when people signoff, so I have evidence the pro-active owners reviewed and approved their map. Of course another owner could change a map that isn't theirs, but I would hope a level of professionalism could be assumed.