The Top Quality Questions

WALLACE · Feb 19, 2005

Peter Fraser said:
Craig

Do you not reckon that most folk who have read ISO9001:2000 would have asked themselves the same questions when they tried to work out what it meant for their own organisations? I have hinted at some of my concerns in other posts, but there hasn't been much response. Although I don't expect to have much time over the next few weeks to get involved in a discussion, I might just post something to see what it generates.

By the way, I agree that there are few absolute answers - but I wish that folk would ask a few more questions - just because something is "ISO" doesn't mean that it is best practice (or even well-written)!

Very well put Peter,
There is a tendency to align all things in business systems to an ISO standard.
I firmly believe this is an almost always misguided approach. Of course the registrars love this approach and certainly preach that line.
Craigs thread is an excellent birds eye view of the general approach and viewpoints relating to, a reliance upon ISO standards for successful business systems.
JKO, FWIW.
Wallace.

ccochran · Feb 21, 2005

Peter and Wallace,

Thanks for your thoughtful inputs. I must admit that I am a reluctant embracer of management system standards. Reluctant, because the presence of a management system standard implies that there is one single best way to do everything, which of course is ridiculous. ISO 9001 does provide an enormous amount of latitude, but this leads to the wide range of interpretations. A standard is better than nothing, I guess, as long as good business sense is applied.

If someone attempts to tackle the answers to this list or any other list, I think could be two answers for each question: 1) the practical, businesslike answer, and 2) the "standard" answers (e.g., ISO 9001, TS 16949, etc.). Often the two answers would be the same, and sometimes not. In a large number of cases, there would be no connection since the standards don't clearly address the topic in question. It would be an interesting project, at any rate.

Thanks again,
Craig

WALLACE · Feb 21, 2005

Craig,
Your initial request was for Quality related questions yet, the majority of answers tended to be ISO related. This is a clear indication that for the most part, quality personnel who participated in this thread naturally correlated your question with an ISO standard focused thread.
Yes, ISO 9001 (In particular) is an excellent standard for those who wish to integrate it into their existing business models.
Questions focusing on the interrogatives (Who, what, where, when, why, how) may reveal much regarding the actual need and or necessity of an ISO standard inclusion into an existing business model. As I have said frequently, "sometimes an ISO business model is neither needed nor necessary".
JMO.
Wallace. :bigwave:

carrello · Apr 25, 2013

Re: The Top Quality Questions -- Your Input Requested

... do you have a list of answers to those questions?

kgott · Apr 25, 2013

Hi; ccochran, what are going to do with these questions?

mlawton · Feb 19, 2017

I have been asked to come up with a 3 year Strategic Quality Plan. This is not something I have done nor been trained on. Does anyone have an example of something they have put together they would not mind sharing?

paccnc · Feb 20, 2017

Thanks Craig for the list. What I found to be interesting was how many of those questions were either asked by me or asked of me.

soldertraining · Mar 1, 2017

Hi Friends! I found most of us have put questions on this board but I want some answer of the following questions of Howdy like :
1. How do we improve our root cause analysis?
2. How do we innovate our products?
3. What’s the best way to educate people on our company’s objectives?
4. Whenever I say ISO 9001 (or TS 16949 or ISO 14001 or any other standard), people in my company get turned off. What should I do?
5. We would like to cherry pick requirements from ISO 9001, instead of implementing the entire standard. Is this a good idea?

skybertus · Mar 24, 2017

Re: Resorted

ccochran said:
Amjadrana,

Good idea. I resorted them into categories and added a few new items:

Document control / Documentation
1. What documents require control?
2. How do you control forms?
3. How can we control memos, printed emails, and sticky notes that people insist on posting?
4. What is the most effective format for job procedures?
5. Who should approve documents?
6. What’s the most efficient form of document control?
7. Does our Quality Manual have to repeat all the requirements from the standard we’re implementing?
8. How can we add value to our Quality Manual?

Problem Solving / Corrective Action
9. How do we improve our root cause analysis?
10. How do we determine if a corrective action was effective?
11. How do we get people to use our corrective action system?
12. Should all customer complaints become corrective actions?
13. What should we do about repeat product defects?

Management Responsibility / Leadership
14. How can I get Top Management to see the value of our quality system?
15. Our top management jumps from one management fad to another. How can I get them to focus on what we’re already doing?
16. What should we do if we fail to achieve our objectives?
17. What is the most effective way to choose organizational objectives?
18. Our management review takes forever and managers hate participating. What should we do about this?

Implementation
19. How do I begin implementing a management system?
20. Should we combine our quality system with our system for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance?
21. We would like to cherry pick requirements from ISO 9001, instead of implementing the entire standard. Is this a good idea?

Customer Satisfaction
22. How do we develop a customer survey?
23. What should we do about customer feedback?
24. We just lost a key customer. What can we do to get them back?

Calibration
25. What measuring instruments must be calibrated?
26. How do you calibrate tape measures, rulers, and similar gauges?
27. What happens if something is found to be out of calibration?
28. Can people be calibrated?

Organizational Culture
29. How can I get employees more excited about our quality system?
30. Whenever I say ISO 9001 (or TS 16949 or ISO 14001 or any other standard), people in my company get turned off. What should I do?

Auditing
31. How can we reinvigorate our internal audit process?
32. How do I plan for an internal audit?
33. Should we use checklists during internal audits? If so, what kind?

Inspection
34. Do we have to inspect or verify everything we purchase?
35. Do we have to keep records of receiving inspection?

Control of Nonconforming Products
36. How do we control nonconforming products when the product is a service?
37. How do we define exactly what is considered a nonconforming product?
38. Should all nonconforming products be submitted to corrective action?
39. One of our key customers has a specification/tolerance/requirement that we simply can not meet. What can we do?

Innovation / Design
40. How do we innovate our products?

Training
41. What’s the best way to educate people on our company’s objectives?
42. Does top management have to be included in our training process?
43. How can we verify whether training has been effective?

Craig

As a new MR, this list is very helpful.
Thank you for this.

Marc · Jan 15, 2018

A quick re-visit to a good read here.

The Top Quality Questions

WALLACE

ccochran

WALLACE

carrello

kgott

mlawton

paccnc

Starting to get Involved

soldertraining

skybertus

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?

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