Integrating your management systems

January 18th, 2010 By The Quality Manager

As organisations adopt more formal management system standards (such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000) these are frequently implemented as standalone systems.

However, there are 6 common elements in these management system standards that can be managed as a integrated management system across all these standards (including ISO 22000 and OHSAS 18001 as well) to the benefit of the whole organisation.

These common elements are:

  1. Policy
  2. Planning
  3. Implementation and operation
  4. Performance assessment
  5. Improvement, and
  6. Management review

Although each standard has its own specific requirements that need to be addressed, these six elements are present in all the above management system standards. ISO is working, through its ISO Guide 72, to ensure not only that these elements exist in all management system standards, but that they have the same clause numbers in each standard.

PAS 99:2006 Specification of common management system requirements as a framework for integration has been produced to help organisations benefit from consolidating the common requirements. If your organisation has adopted, or is adopting, more than one of these standards, the use of this integrated approach can reduce duplication and complexity and make internal and external audits more effective and efficient.

Posted in Audits, Certification, ISO 14001, ISO 22000, ISO 9001, ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 20000, ISO/IEC 27001, OHSAS 18001, Standards | No Comments »

GTD for free

November 8th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

Courtesy of GTD Times, the official blog for the David Allen Company and GTD, here’s a list of FREE GTD resources:

  1. GTD Times – helpful advice, tricks, tips and strategies for implementing GTD
  2. Podcasts – including the best practices with David Allen and his team
  3. Coaches Corner – articles from the GTD Coaches
  4. GTD Connect - a two week trial of the online learning centre packed with GTD goodies
  5. Articles, Handouts and Learning Tools – essays from David Allen on GTD best practices
  6. Tips and Tools – useful tips and tricks
  7. GTD-IQ – how do you measure up against GTD?
  8. GTD Facebook Fan Page – chat with other GTDers
  9. GTD LinkedIn Network – network with business-focussed GTD people
  10. Twitter – follow David and the coaches and GTD Twitter-based classes @GTDSpecialEvent
  11. GTD You Tube Channel - fun and useful videos of David and the GTD practitioners
  12. Productive Living Newsletter – David’s newsletter
  13. David at Google – overview of the keys to control and perspective
  14. Discussion Forums – ask questions and search for answers about GTD

“Winning at the game of work and the business of life” doesn’t need to cost the earth!

Posted in GTD | No Comments »

ISO 9001:2015

November 4th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

This may be a bit of a surprise when we’re just getting used to ISO 9001:2008 but the next version of ISO 9001 is now being considered and it’s likely to be 2015 before it’s published.

The committee responsible for ISO 9001 is in the early stages of working out what changes need to be made in the next version of the standard. The first version of ISO 9001 (1987 version) took 7 years to develop. The 1994 edition took another seven years and the major revision ISO 9001:2000 took 6 years. The 2008 version, which had only minor changes, took another 8 years (though that was more to allow the 2000 version to settle rather than the scale of changes in ISO 9001:2008).

The next version could therefore be as early as 2013 but 2015 seems more likely.

One of the difficulties to be faced in the next version is the increase in the number of “management system standards”. ISO 9001 was the first but was followed by others such as ISO 14001 for environment management systems. ISO has stated that all management system standards need to be aligned to the extent that they have as far as possible identical clause titles, sequence of clauses, definitions and as much identical text as feasible.

This drive for commonality amongst the management system standards may detract from the need to include new ideas in ISO 9001. One of the criteria for developing ISO 9001:2000 was that no “new” requirements were added – it was more of a structural change. So many of the concepts in ISO 9001:2000 and the 2008 edition are unchanged from the 1994 version and if the next version doesn’t appear until 2015, and no new concepts are introduced it will contain concepts that are over 20 years old!

In the post about David Hoyle’s ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook, I mentioned that the book is openly critical of ISO 9001’s inconsistencies. So, despite the fact that ISO 9001 has become a worldwide baseline for quality management, there are lots of improvements that could be made.

For example, the purpose of ISO 9001 is still largely misunderstood. It is not a “model quality management system”. To many organisations and consultants that advise them seem to think that paraphrasing the ISO 9001 standard is the correct way to document a quality management system. ISO 9001 is a list of the requirements that a quality management system shall meet to enable it to be assessed. It is not a documented quality management system (that’s just one of the requirements to be met).

Another improvement would be to deal with the challenge that ISO 9001 stifles innovation by placing a greater emphasis on compliance that on improvement.

How can you influence what goes in the next version of ISO 9001? Get in touch with your national standards body – the British Standards Institution in the UK – or email the UK representative on the ISO committee Charles.Corrie@BSI-global.com

Posted in ISO 9001, ISO 9001:2008, ISO 9001:2015 | No Comments »

GTD Tips, Tricks and Tools – A-Z Filing System

October 6th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

“The lack of a good filing system can be one of the greatest obstacles to implementing a personal management system” – David Allen in Getting Things Done.

You need a good filing system or your in tray will get clogged up with stuff you should have filed.

Your filing system needs to:

  • take less than a minute to file anything
  • easy to use
  • fun to use
  • current
  • complete

You will need one or more filing cabinets. If you can get them go for the ones with a moving plate to hold the file folders upright rather than hanging files. If it’s one with hanging files – label the folders you put in instead of the hanging folders and only only put one file per hanger. But don’t let them get more than three quarters full.

Keep a stack of new file folders handy and invest in a labeller. I use a Brother P-Touch 65 – it’s battery and mains operated and can make fancy labels as well as plain ones but I think it may have been superceded by the P-Touch 80. David Allen has this handsome beast on his desk that connects to his laptop via a USB socket.

Typeset labels “change the nature of your files and your relationship with them” says David . They’re just easier to pick out and look more professional if you take them into a meeting.

When it comes to labelling your files, Keep It Simple Stupid! Think about how best to label folders so that you can quickly find what you’re looking for. If you have lots of files it may make sense to devote a whole filing drawer to finance. If you wanted to file all your credit card statements, for example, then if you have a separate finance drawer just labelling your folders – MBNA, John Lewis, etc. would be fine but if you’re mixing all your reference files together then labelling these ones “Credit Card MBNA” and “Credit Card John Lewis” would be better. If more than one person needs to access your filing system consult them about how best to label the folders.

And don’t forget to purge your files occasionally – at least once a year!

Posted in File Folders, Filing, Labeller | No Comments »

ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook

September 28th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

The latest edition of the ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook is the sixth revision of this excellent book by David Hoyle.

It has been updated to cover the changes in ISO 9001:2008 that I have already covered in this blog.

In my view, this is all you need to understand and apply ISO 9000 to your business whether it’s in pursuit of ISO 9001:2008 certification or just business improvement in general. Of course, if you’re a quality consultant and auditor like me you’ll find this weighty tome invaluable.

David’s style, and approach in general to the ISO 9000 series, has always been constructive but direct. If he thinks the standard is unclear or ambiguous, as it is in many places, he says so, why he thinks so, and how best to deal with these failings. In this edition he has even considered the views of John Seddon, a long time critic of ISO 9001 (see his book The Case Against ISO 9000).

The ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook now has a new structure.

Part 1 Before You Start puts the ISO 9000 family of standards into context, defines quality and why it is important to organisations. It introduces the management principles on which the standards are based. There is a whole chapter on stakeholders, the importance of whom will become much more apparent when the new version of ISO 9004 is available. This part ends with a practical guide to the use of the ISO 9000 family of standards.

Part 2 Approaches to Achieving, Sustaining and Improving Quality covers six different approaches to getting to the level of quality that will lead to sustained success, the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

Part 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 deal with Complying with ISO 9001 Sections Requirements. These are the sections most people will turn to who are trying to achieve ISO 9001 certification. It’s a little bit odd that David couldn’t have put another Part in front of these so that they were numbered the same as the ISO 9001 sections! Each requirement is explained in terms of What Does This Mean? Why Is This Necessary?, How Is This Demonstrated?, so that you not only get to know what the standard says but why it says it and what you need to do to comply with it.

Part 8 System Assessment Certification and Continuing Development provides tools to help you prepare for assessment, how assessments are conducted and how to progress beyond ISO 9001 certification.

It remains to be seen what the effect of the new version of ISO 9004 will be (called ISO 9004:2009 though it’s struggling not to become ISO 9004:2010!). In the meantime, beyond obtaining a copies of ISO 9000:2005 and ISO 9001:2008, this is the only other publication you might need.

Posted in Certification, David Hoyle, ISO 9000, ISO 9004, John Seddon | No Comments »

My GTD System

September 23rd, 2009 By The Quality Manager


The first thing to say about my implementation of David Allen’s systematic approach to Getting Things Done is that it is a constantly evolving system to meet my needs. As my needs change and as I gain more insight into GTD and how it may help me in any particular situation my system gets modified to a greater or lesser extent.

So my system may not suit you and perhaps to help you understand why my system is configured this way I need to describe how I work “at the business of life and the game of work”.

I have been a freelance quality management consultant for the last twenty years. I work for a variety of clients of varying sizes – the smallest was three people – all the way up to large government departments of hundreds of people. More often than not, because of the size of these clients, it’s just one client at a time. At the moment I have two clients, both fairly large and one, a utility company, requires my services more or less full time for at least three months. The other one is a government department, but this is just a small consultancy requirement of about one day a month.

In addition to looking after these clients, I have all the responsibilities of running a small business – keeping accounts, training, keeping up to date generally, maintaining a website and this blog. Plus all the usual responsibilities that go with being a husband and a father.

I’ve had a GTD system of sorts for over 20 years. I’ve always been “relatively” organised and I had a paper organiser long before anyone knew what one was. Mine was an A4 binder with dividers for calendar, action lists, projects and reference material. Don’t forget that David Allen didn’t invent GTD out of fresh air. He looked at what worked and pulled it together into a systematic approach. There’s much in GTD that we already do without realising it’s part of the GTD system.

In about 1984, I went on a training course based on the Time Manager system. This, like the Time Design system that David worked with before devising GTD purported to be a way of managing your time to get things done. It had Key Areas, a bit like GTD’s Horizons of Focus, Tasks and Activities (GTD Next Actions), Calendar, Notes, Contacts etc.

I worked this system for several years with some success but it never really coped well with the increasing amount of stuff that was starting to hit me and all of us as we got into the 90s.

I became aware of David Allen around 2000 through finding a few of his ideas on the Internet. Many of these basic principles are still on the DavidCo website as free downloads. These include how to configure a paper organiser, how to set up a tickler file, etc.

Then I bought David’s Getting Things Done and read it cover to cover in a few days and began implementing the system. In many ways this was just revamping my old A4 binder but now I was using A5. For a while I used my old Time Manager binder but eventually I replaced it with an A5 Filofax.

This Filofax is set-up with the following dividers and has been unchanged now for several years:

Plastic protector covering:-

  1. Mindmap showing the layout of the Filofax
  2. Plastic pocket to collect odd scraps of paper, bills etc.
  3. Notes/In with blank ruled sheets containing notes taken (and some blank sheets)
  4. Calendar Section with Weekly checklist for the current week, Monthly checklist for the current month, Annual checklist for the year (birthdays and anniversaries) and printed pages from Outlook, one week over two pages, for at least 13 weeks
  5. Action Lists, currently including Agendas, Anywhere, Calls, Computer, Errands, Home, Listen, Office, Online, Read, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe
  6. Projects (each section preceded by a list of the Projects in that section) Business Projects, Home Projects, Personal Projects, Someday/Maybe Projects
  7. Reference containing useful lists and other material
  8. Spare forms
  9. Contacts

Although I use Outlook, my system is essentially based around the forms in my Filofax. These forms are updated by hand but they are also held electronically in a folder on my PC called Filofax.

The subfolders in Filofax match the paper Filofax and the Filofax folder also fits onto an 8MB USB memory stick that I can take from computer to computer.

This configuration has remained unchanged for over two years now and seems likely to stay with me for some time.

The next major update will be when I start to develop my Areas of Focus now that I’ve got Next Actions and Projects under control.

Posted in Areas of Focus, My GTD System | No Comments »

Giving Good Audit Feedback

September 22nd, 2009 By The Quality Manager

My favourite quotation that sums up the way too many auditors behave is that “auditors are sent in after the battle to bayonet the wounded!”

That’s just what it feels like to many people having a daily struggle against demand outstripping supply and management that doesn’t see to care. Then in comes the auditor and tells them what they already know – there too much for them to do and they haven’t got the right staff with the right training and the right tools to do the job effectively let alone efficiently.

That said, when I’m auditing I believe it’s important to communicate both conformity and nonconformity as the audit progresses. When summarising the audit findings at the closing meeting, or at any interim feedback meeting, it is sometimes too easy to lay most of the emphasis on nonconformity.

I use a simple mechanism to ensure feedback is balanced between areas of both conformity and nonconformity. This also reminds me to seek out areas of good practice as well as areas that need improvement.

Instead of describing findings “good” and “bad” I try to categorise them as “good” and “could be better.” I use a simple format to communicate this mixture of feedback. A sample is shown in the table below.

 

The left column keeps the entries numbered. From there, the next column details the areas of good practice. The next column describes the areas for improvement. If I’m auditing against a particular standard (such as ISO 9001) then I usually include the relevant clause number in the final column on the right.

Although this feedback can be typed and presented as a document at the closing meeting, I prefer to write it on a flipchart. In this way I can ensure that everyone at the closing meeting can see the feedback. In addition, I often reveal the feedback line by line, keeping the rest of the feedback covered to ensure everyone stays focused as each individual finding is presented.

In the example shown in Figure 1, each of the entries except three and five shows balanced feedback. Entry three includes only an area of good practice—no improvements were suggested. In the case of entry five there was no mitigating good practice to offer following the audit. Customer satisfaction was not being measured at all. This is nonconformity against ISO 9001 clause 8.2.1, as shown in the final column on the right.

Those who are being audited appreciate this balanced feedback approach. The approach also encourages us as auditors to seek areas of good practice during the audit and offer praise where it is appropriate.

I also receive clear feedback on our findings at the closing meeting. The entire findings are presented in this feedback format as an overview. Therefore, there will be no surprises in the audit report that is prepared and delivered later. Nothing is included in the audit report that was not covered in this balanced feedback offered in the closing meeting.

I believe this approach makes me a better auditor and gives audits a more constructive tone.

Posted in Audits | No Comments »

GTD Tips, Tricks and Tools – The MoSCoW Rules

September 16th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

Though not really part of the GTD systematic approach, the MoSCoW Rules, often applied to priorising in project management, can be useful in helping you decide what order to do the tasks on your lists.

“MoSCoW” in this context stands for “Must o Should Could o Won’t”

Firstly, what tasks MUST you do today? These should be at the top of your list and headed “MUST DO TODAY”. Draw a line under this list.

Secondly, what tasks SHOULD you do today? These appear next on your list and are headed “SHOULD DO TODAY”. You should only tackle these when all your MUST DO list has been completed. Draw a line under this list.

Thirdly, what tasks COULD you do today, but only if you have the time and you’ve done all the MUST do, and SHOULD do tasks? List these under the heading “COULD DO TODAY” and draw a line below the list.

Finally, what WON’T you do today? Writing tasks on this list helps you to confirm that they’re not as important as anything in the three categories above. Also, it reminds you that if you catch yourself doing one of these tasks, you should stop and go back the top of your lists and work down again.

Working through these lists top down should motivate you to get the MUSTs and SHOULDs done so that you can feel good about doing some of the COULDs but not feel bad about not doing any of the WON’Ts!

Posted in MoSCoW Rules | No Comments »

BS EN 16001 Energy Management

September 14th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

BSI is adding to the range of standards you can be certified to by releasing BS EN 16001 Energy Management Systems.

This standard recognises that businesses need to become more energy efficient to be competitive.

This new standard, which follows the Plan, Do, Check, Act approach of previous management standards, such as BS EN ISO 9001, BS EN ISO 14001, and more recently BS EN 12001, provides:

  • A structured approach to identifying your energy-related assets

  • A framework for controlling, monitoring and measuring your energy consumption

  • A means to identify opportunities to cut energy costs and increase energy efficiency

The standard defines the requirements of an energy management system (EnMS).

BS EN 16001 can help you to:

  • Reduce operating costs by controlling in-house energy costs

  • Improve your reputation by demonstrating that you are controlling greenhouse gas emissions

  • Deal with the growing amount of legislation including the Carbon Reduction Commitment which becomes mandatory in April 2010 for organisations using more than 6,000MWh/yr

An energy management system, designed around BS EN 16001, will help to embed best practice energy management into normal operations, everyday decisions and behaviour.


BS EN 16001 can be obtained from the BSI Shop priced £100 (£50 to BSI Members).

There is also a companion guide BIP 2187:2009 Energy Management Principles and Practice providing expert insights on implementing BS EN 16001 and having an effective energy management system in place. This is £30 (no discount for BSI Members) and offers a practical and easy to follow introduction to the technical considerations, human factors and management aspects of energy saving in commerce, industry and the public sector.

Posted in BS EN 16001 | No Comments »

GTD Tips, Tricks and Tools – The Tickler File or Bring Forward File

August 26th, 2009 By The Quality Manager

What it consists of

The TICKLER FILE or BRING FORWARD FILE consists of 43 folders:

31 daily folders labelled “1″ to “31″

12 monthly folders labelled with the months of the year

The daily folders are kept at the front, beginning with tomorrow’s folder (for the example used in Getting Things Done where today is October 5th, this would be the folder labelled “6″).

The remaining daily folders (in the example, “7″ to “31″) are filed behind this followed by the monthly folder for next month (in the example, this would be “November”) and then the daily folders already used (in the example, “1″ to “5″). Finally there would be the remaining monthly folders for the remaining 11 months (in the example, “December” to “October”.

So you would end up with a set of folders (following the example) labelled thus:

[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[November]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[December]
[January]
[February]
[March]
[April]
[May]
[June]
[July]
[August]
[September]
[October]

How it works

  1. Each day, empty the daily folder for that day into your in-basket.
  2. File the empty folder at the back of the daily folders (in the example, “6″ is emptied and placed behind “5″ to now represent November 6th).
  3. When the next monthly folder is reached (in the example, “November” after “31″ has been emptied) the monthly folder is emptied into your in-basket and then filed at the back of the monthly folders to represent that month next year.

Tips and Tricks

Be sure to update your Tickler File every day and if you’re going away for a few days process all the folders ahead for the days you’ll be away.

Use the folders to file:

  • travel documents and tickets for events on the day you’ll need them
  • bills on the days you need to pay them
  • print out reminders for each birthday and anniversary and file them in the appropriate month to be moved into the appropriate day in due course. It’s a good idea to file reminders a few days ahead (especially if the due date is at the beginning of a month) to ensure you get a card and present ahead of time

There is a free factsheet on the Tickler File available on the David Allen website. There is also a set of 43 sturdy plastic letter size file folders, open on three sides. The GTD Tickler files are blue-grey with black trim and appropriately labelled (in five languages!) Please note that this is expensive to ship as the folders weigh over 5 pounds. Although the folders are letter size, they take A4 papers quite happily.

You can, of course, easily make and label your own set of folders but they are unlikely to last as long as these strong, purpose built folders.

Posted in Bring Forward File, Tickler File, Tips, Tools, Tricks | No Comments »

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