ISO - some basic paperwork enquiries

[Lacci14550]

Good Afternoon,

Im new to this whole ISO theme in joining a new company. Now Ihave inherited the job from someone and its all completely paperbased.

is there a rule that says I must control document changes with manual change request forms that require signing off over and over?

I would like to just get the reviewed forms/quality documents etc to get printed off, for safe keeping, update the version details on my log and that should be it.

Will I fail ISO if I do that instead of running through change request after change request for updating a comma on a form...

Ihope you get the idea.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thank you.

 

[bigears]

No there is no rule that says you must control document changes with 'manual change request forms.

You can change any text on the quality controlled document, as you have the approval to do so, and as long as you change the revison level on the actual document.

The key is to ensure you have traceability to know if the document is at the latest revision.

My advise is keep it simple!!

Just use a simple seperate master log sheet that that records a summary of the changes you made, and the current revison level of the controlled documents.

 

[Lacci14550]

Thats great thanks. I didnt think that ISO would have the aim on chopping up even more trees. Less paper for me, thank God.

 

[AdamJ]

If you tackle it right you can really drive down the paperwork under the newer ISO 9000:2000. We managed to get a system running in a company (with several sites in the UK and France) using 14 short procedures with everything being competence based - if you prove your people are competent then you need fewer procedures detailing every last thing. Lloyds (LRQA) have been happy enough certifying it as compliant since. Its worth investigating for the long-term - and it gets rid of a lot of the routine grind in managing it.

 

[Lacci14550]

Adam,

any suggestions where I can start with the research? This simply sounds too good to be true. I loath paper and this company does everything based on paper. a push into the 21st century wouldnt go a miss.

thanks

 

[AdamJ]

Talk to Lloyds is one good thing - I don't deal with ISO 9000 any more but they were very good for general advice, or I would guess whomever is certificating your system. I did a couple of LRQA ISO 9000 courses and auditing courses and they were very good. I don't work for the company we set the system up in any more but I am in contact with them still and the system is still going - must have been running for 6 years or so now with competence as the main focus.

 

[arindra]

this is an interesting topic for me as well . will remain subscribed for any updates.

 

[WhatManufacturersWant]

You have to be careful when printing things as if it's a proceedure which someone uses it could hve been printed years ago which dosen't actually reflect the updated true procedure. Thats why you see "Uncontrolled when Printed" or similar all over the place on quality documents. Usually multiple cpies of iso documants can be painful as there will need to be a system of updating changes to them. However it does seem that your system could do with a serious looking at.

 

[bigears]

As ADAMJ states the intro of IS09001:2000 has made obtaining ISO certification easier and more worthwile from a business point of view. It's now a more value add system.

As I said in the earlier post, you want to keep it as simple as possible. All you need with regards a paper system is procedures covering the basic requirements.

Quality Manual - what your Goals and Objectives are and Quality Policy
Control of documents - how you control your records
Control of records - how you control & file records
Audit - how you audit the system to ensure do what you say you do
Control of non conformance - how you manage any customer complaints

In theory all the above could be 1 page flow charts, that show you how the actual procedures flow. You don't even need written text.

If you have a experienced workforce you can get away with experience and competancies being the main driver, rather than wordy lengthly written procedures.

Your much better having simple flow charted procedures rather than wordy long procedures.

kEEP IT SIMPLE!!! YOU HAVE MORE CHANCE OF THE SYSTEM BEING FOLLOWED