Some good comments from allways active Phyllis:
Subject: Re: Q: Small business/complicated procedures/Scalies/Naish
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:18:24 -0600
From: ISO Standards Discussion
From: PNaish
Subject: Re: Q: Small business/complicated procedures/Scalies/Naish
Charlie,
I'd like to answer your question regarding documenting the small business in several ways with a couple of examples.
Our company has 3 people with about 47 internally generated and controlled documents. And before you react with that being over kill and some kind of waste of effort let me explain why and what we did. We are NOT registered nor have we been required by a single client to become registered. Most don't even ask if we have procedures (that is until we train them they should be asking). We did it to make sure we have better consistancy and clear methods for providing the client what they expect.
In addition, I am often brought into discussion with clients who want to know why they have to do something that their registrar doesn't (like the one who didn't show up on time a few months back). When I first started ISO consulting I ask myself that question before my clients have a chance. Over the years we have increased our services and have refined our procedures to continuously improve our process.
In the beginning we had only a few services but have added software products to our offering. The addition of the software took on a life of its own with the processes of services being different than that of products.
As to the detail in each: some are very detailed for specific reasons. One of my staff does the fedex. I only do it when no one else is around. We have a fairly detailed instruction for my benefit so that in the event the other two are gone at the same time (about once every six months) I can send documents or product to a cleint.
I do almost all of the quotes and have a program that I developed that takes into consideration complexity of the client system and size of the group along with some technology factors. I developed it after a couple of years based on the history of our services. I have a fairly detailed instruction which is part of the program so that if I am gone and a client wants a quote they don't have to wait for me. From experience I am 99% sure that we will come in almost right on the quoted target even if they quote and we don't pad the hours to make them come out nor do we skimp and change it later since our quote is a not to exceed and if we come in less they get the difference.
We have a 30 minute maximum initial response time even if all three of us are out of the office. And we support both east coast and west coast time zones through planning which is part of the process we went through developing our procedures.
We continuously monitor our sucesses and our services through easy to use and easy to remember procedures.
We have several small business clients who have also implemented ISO for business reasons and not because they needed to for customers. One had 4 employees when we started. Another had 7 employees. One had 10 and is now up to 15. One had 13 and went down as they saw increased productivity and reduced waste in returned goods and ineffective use of their time. One that I work with every month for several hours per month as their QA Manager had 12. They were amazed at how easy it could be. I replaced a full time person that had left for other reasons. And by helping them stream line their system using the ISO model they only need a part time person to maintain their system and their quality has improved.
If you want more on what it can benefit even a small company I will be more than happy to give you some names you can call and you can ask them why they are still ISO when their clients don't require it.
Phyllis Naish
Subject: Re: Q: Small business/complicated procedures/Scalies/Naish
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:18:24 -0600
From: ISO Standards Discussion
From: PNaish
Subject: Re: Q: Small business/complicated procedures/Scalies/Naish
Charlie,
I'd like to answer your question regarding documenting the small business in several ways with a couple of examples.
Our company has 3 people with about 47 internally generated and controlled documents. And before you react with that being over kill and some kind of waste of effort let me explain why and what we did. We are NOT registered nor have we been required by a single client to become registered. Most don't even ask if we have procedures (that is until we train them they should be asking). We did it to make sure we have better consistancy and clear methods for providing the client what they expect.
In addition, I am often brought into discussion with clients who want to know why they have to do something that their registrar doesn't (like the one who didn't show up on time a few months back). When I first started ISO consulting I ask myself that question before my clients have a chance. Over the years we have increased our services and have refined our procedures to continuously improve our process.
In the beginning we had only a few services but have added software products to our offering. The addition of the software took on a life of its own with the processes of services being different than that of products.
As to the detail in each: some are very detailed for specific reasons. One of my staff does the fedex. I only do it when no one else is around. We have a fairly detailed instruction for my benefit so that in the event the other two are gone at the same time (about once every six months) I can send documents or product to a cleint.
I do almost all of the quotes and have a program that I developed that takes into consideration complexity of the client system and size of the group along with some technology factors. I developed it after a couple of years based on the history of our services. I have a fairly detailed instruction which is part of the program so that if I am gone and a client wants a quote they don't have to wait for me. From experience I am 99% sure that we will come in almost right on the quoted target even if they quote and we don't pad the hours to make them come out nor do we skimp and change it later since our quote is a not to exceed and if we come in less they get the difference.
We have a 30 minute maximum initial response time even if all three of us are out of the office. And we support both east coast and west coast time zones through planning which is part of the process we went through developing our procedures.
We continuously monitor our sucesses and our services through easy to use and easy to remember procedures.
We have several small business clients who have also implemented ISO for business reasons and not because they needed to for customers. One had 4 employees when we started. Another had 7 employees. One had 10 and is now up to 15. One had 13 and went down as they saw increased productivity and reduced waste in returned goods and ineffective use of their time. One that I work with every month for several hours per month as their QA Manager had 12. They were amazed at how easy it could be. I replaced a full time person that had left for other reasons. And by helping them stream line their system using the ISO model they only need a part time person to maintain their system and their quality has improved.
If you want more on what it can benefit even a small company I will be more than happy to give you some names you can call and you can ask them why they are still ISO when their clients don't require it.
Phyllis Naish
