Where to Start to Completely overhaul a QMS

[Randy]

All good advice, but as usual I'll keep it simple

Check around and figure out why you're doing ISO 9001 in the 1st place, if you can't determine the answer or nobody knows other than something to fill a "tick" box quit wasting the time and resources and do something else of greater value that everyone will "buy in to".

Now if you have a customer that says "do it or else" you can do 1 of 2 things, roll over on your back like a puppy and do what your told "or else", ... or evaluate the overall value of the customer to your organization... If you determine that their "value" is of little consequence let them do the "or else" or let them hold their breath until their fanny falls off, suck it up, come up with a plan and move on.

 

[CATERAF]

Very nice to hear that this is a similar problem for many people.. it means it's achievable!

I work in a very similar company to yours by the sounds of it, but with ~14 people.
We don't have ISO 9001 yet but I'm currently working to help our employees overcome the mentality of 'why do we need to change? We don't have time to change, we have to get the product out'.. the 300kph 'thing' is very relevant to us too.

The question: where to start.

Well, if they're all running around like headless chooks as much as our lot feel they are, the best approach is to make changes so slowly that they don't realise they're making many changes. Or you do the leg-work and just 'check-in' with them here and there to make sure you're on the right track (read: you have their buy-in). Then when you implement it's not a huge deal for them to make the tiny change, they didn't have to do anything other than make a little change..you did most of it. Do make sure they're on board with it though.. otherwise it's not a tiny change, it's a whole new thing to have to learn.

The other thing I have found useful is to subtly get them to flesh out their problem which they may not have noticed was a problem. To do this can be by asking them a few questions about a problem that occurred and finding out if we could work to prevent that happening. The other way I find works is to try and 'understand' the processes they use by talking it through with them.. i sometimes just ask 'do they do such-and-such' and they say 'no, but we should... ' and then I can try and make that happen if it's feasible.

It really is just slowly slowly... and sometimes it helps to jump around and do some changes in one area and then do some in another area. If it's continual pressure in one area they're going to feel more pressured to change. I might do a bit in admin, then swap to do some design stuff and then we might look at testing or document control. A little here, a little there.. start with some areas that are small changes but can make some noticeable improvement so they feel that they're doing well.

Just keep encouraging them too -- tell them what's good before you discuss areas to improve. E.g., I can see that you do lots of testing.. before discussing a 'small' area of testing that can be improved etc.

Hope that helps -- it really is just go slow and get on their side. Just remember that you're there to help them .. be gentle and kind (but firm where required) as we all want to work more with people who are nice to us and value us.

All the best -- enjoy watching them grow. It really is awesome helping them become better at what they do!