Aug. 13, 2012
Ian Clark recently visited a medium sized metal fabricator who had requested help to regain certification to ISO 9001. The organisation had originally been accredited to an earlier version of the ISO standard but had let their certificate lapse around eight years before.
After a change of ownership and an injection of new employees the company was keen to explore the opportunities of building a better business using ISO 9001 as a platform for continual improvement.
Ian asked them why their ISO quality system had been abandoned. They offered two main reasons:
- The management representative had left the company
- There were too many paper forms to be filled out and filed… "we just lost track of things"
My thoughts on this are:
- Why was it only the management representative who maintained the quality system … Quality is meant to be everyone’s responsibility!
- Quality was not a “core” process of the organisation and was inadequately resourced
When we developed Quality Systems Toolbox we set out to address the above problem areas. Our web-based software addresses the core elements of the ISO 9001 standard and requires little in the way of additional system procedural documentation. Our support documentation provides guidance so you don't need to write your own 'how-to' procedures.
Quality Systems Toolbox assigns responsibility and due dates for all kinds of quality 'to-dos' - calibrations, audits, meetings - so you never loose track of important schedules.
Built in “work-flow” options guide users and create quality records easily.
Because Quality Systems Toolbox is hosted software there is no installation or upgrades to worry about, and no need for expensive IT support.
So, are web-based quality systems a viable option? YES, indeed they are!
PS. External Auditors like them too.