An ISO 9001 Lead Auditor is someone who can help your business ensure that it not only meets the requirements of ISO 9001 but should bring the skills to help ensure continuous improvement of your business systems.
If you wish to be a Certified ISO 9001:2008 IRCA Approved Lead Auditor then you will first need your Lead Auditor Training. After that you will need to meet the IRCA requirements for becoming a certified lead auditor. IRCA and IPC are bodies that Certify and Approve Lead Auditor Training courses and also register certified ISO 9001:2008 Lead Auditors. Once you are a certified / approved Lead auditor then you will be in a position to be able to work for one of the certification bodies auditing companies around the world to the requirements of ISO9001.
ISO 9001 certification is held by many companies around the world, all require the services of an auditor trained as to the requirements of ISO 9001. The larger of these companies often need the services of what is called a lead auditor, someone trained not just to audit to the requirements of ISO 9001 but also as the leader of the other auditors in the company.
A lead auditor who has applied to IRCA with acceptable levels of experience is able to become what is known as a certified lead auditor, this is a qualification recognized around the world that would enable the lead auditor to conduct audits within any company in an industry in which he has experience.
A Certified ISO 9001 Lead Auditor is an indispensable member of your team if you wish to go about improving your business systems to help you to be better than your competition.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Internal Quality Auditing
With companies that have ISO 9001 certification required to audit their internal systems on a regular basis there will always be a requirement to have ISO 9001 Trained Internal Auditors.
What is ISO 9001:2008 internal auditing and how do you go about getting internal auditor training? This article will explain to you how to go about becoming an ISO 9001 Quality Auditor, how to conduct your internal audit, planning it, holding opening and closing meetings, writing reports and following up on actions taken. Once you have your quality auditor training you can undertake your ISO 9001 internal audits within the company that you work. Conducting internal audits within your organization will ensure that your processes and procedures meet both your company and ISO 9001 requirements and help ensure that your processes remain in control and capable of delivering conforming products and services to your customers.
Many companies around the globe have quality management systems that meet the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 and all require trained internal quality auditors. One of the requirements of ISO 9001 is that companies must audit their systems to ensure that they both meet company and customer requirements as well as the requirements of ISO 9001.
Internal Quality Audit training is a requirement for all prospective internal quality audits, the training will ensure that the auditor is able to conduct internal audits of your company's systems. Trained Internal quality auditors will ensure that not only do your systems conform to the requirements of ISO 9001 but should also be pointing out ways to make continual improvements to your business systems.
What is ISO 9001:2008 internal auditing and how do you go about getting internal auditor training? This article will explain to you how to go about becoming an ISO 9001 Quality Auditor, how to conduct your internal audit, planning it, holding opening and closing meetings, writing reports and following up on actions taken. Once you have your quality auditor training you can undertake your ISO 9001 internal audits within the company that you work. Conducting internal audits within your organization will ensure that your processes and procedures meet both your company and ISO 9001 requirements and help ensure that your processes remain in control and capable of delivering conforming products and services to your customers.
Many companies around the globe have quality management systems that meet the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 and all require trained internal quality auditors. One of the requirements of ISO 9001 is that companies must audit their systems to ensure that they both meet company and customer requirements as well as the requirements of ISO 9001.
Internal Quality Audit training is a requirement for all prospective internal quality audits, the training will ensure that the auditor is able to conduct internal audits of your company's systems. Trained Internal quality auditors will ensure that not only do your systems conform to the requirements of ISO 9001 but should also be pointing out ways to make continual improvements to your business systems.
Friday, October 1, 2010
ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System
The ISO 9001 requirements for a quality management system outlines what you have to do to achieve certification to this international standard. Achieving certification to this standard will help to drive continual business improvement within your company.
ISO 9001:2008 is it a quality management system or it suitable as an overall business management system. This article explains the origins of ISO, the history and benefits of ISO 9001:2008 as well as comparing the use of ISO9001 Quality management system (QMS) and as a business management system to drive continuous quality improvement within your organisation. You quality management system is the system by which you control all of your process and procedures within the company to ensure that they are controlled and deliver conforming services and products every time, whereas your business management system reflects the running of the whole business not just the quality aspect.
With a system that meets the requirements of ISO 9001 and follows the guidelines of ISO 9004 you would have a management system that would enable you to drive your business forward, not just satisfying your current customers but helping your to win more. The quality management system influences all aspects of your business from suppliers through design, production and delivery. If you can be the best that you can be in all of these areas and continually improve then you would have a business that can compete globally against any other.
As you can see, if you not only implement the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 but you also follow the guidelines defined within ISO 9004 you will drive continuous business improvement within your company and help your business to become more and more competitive.
ISO 9001:2008 is it a quality management system or it suitable as an overall business management system. This article explains the origins of ISO, the history and benefits of ISO 9001:2008 as well as comparing the use of ISO9001 Quality management system (QMS) and as a business management system to drive continuous quality improvement within your organisation. You quality management system is the system by which you control all of your process and procedures within the company to ensure that they are controlled and deliver conforming services and products every time, whereas your business management system reflects the running of the whole business not just the quality aspect.
With a system that meets the requirements of ISO 9001 and follows the guidelines of ISO 9004 you would have a management system that would enable you to drive your business forward, not just satisfying your current customers but helping your to win more. The quality management system influences all aspects of your business from suppliers through design, production and delivery. If you can be the best that you can be in all of these areas and continually improve then you would have a business that can compete globally against any other.
As you can see, if you not only implement the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 but you also follow the guidelines defined within ISO 9004 you will drive continuous business improvement within your company and help your business to become more and more competitive.
ISO 9001:2008 Requirements
If you want to improve your business then you need to have a solid base from which to build, this can be achieved through becoming certified to the international standard ISO 9001:2008. This is an international standard that will help you define your processes and procedures to help you ensure that you control them to deliver conforming products and services to your customers every time.
ISO 9001:2008 specifies the requirements for a quality management system to help your organization to control your processes to ensure that you repeatedly produce products and services that meet customer specifications. Meeting the ISO 9001 requirements for a quality management system will also help you to continually improve your processes to improve Customer Satisfaction. A satisfied customer that consistently receives conforming products and services is a customer that will keep returning time after time. ISO 9001 is a system that can form part of a contract and can be audited by an independent third party, meaning that you can be certified to ISO 9001 and have a method to prove to potential customers that you have put in place an effective quality management system that meets the requirements of ISO9001.
This article will explain what the requirements are for a quality management system to meet ISO 9001, far too many companies turn the requirements of ISO 9001 into a burden to the company rather than a system that will help the company grow. Try not to do that by focusing on what is really required not over-complicating processes with excessive amounts of documentation.
Some believe that ISO 9001 is too bureaucratic and slows things down, however that is the poor implementation of what should be a simple and helpful system. There is no need to over-complicate systems with massive amounts of additional paperwork in the name of control and quality improvement, business improvement does not need you to slow everything! Correctly implemented ISO 9001 will drive business improvement within your company.
ISO 9001:2008 specifies the requirements for a quality management system to help your organization to control your processes to ensure that you repeatedly produce products and services that meet customer specifications. Meeting the ISO 9001 requirements for a quality management system will also help you to continually improve your processes to improve Customer Satisfaction. A satisfied customer that consistently receives conforming products and services is a customer that will keep returning time after time. ISO 9001 is a system that can form part of a contract and can be audited by an independent third party, meaning that you can be certified to ISO 9001 and have a method to prove to potential customers that you have put in place an effective quality management system that meets the requirements of ISO9001.
This article will explain what the requirements are for a quality management system to meet ISO 9001, far too many companies turn the requirements of ISO 9001 into a burden to the company rather than a system that will help the company grow. Try not to do that by focusing on what is really required not over-complicating processes with excessive amounts of documentation.
Some believe that ISO 9001 is too bureaucratic and slows things down, however that is the poor implementation of what should be a simple and helpful system. There is no need to over-complicate systems with massive amounts of additional paperwork in the name of control and quality improvement, business improvement does not need you to slow everything! Correctly implemented ISO 9001 will drive business improvement within your company.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Outsourcing Alternatives
I have seen many companies that have outsourced their production and services to overseas companies in an effort to reduce costs. But are these really savings, are they sustainable? What are the outsourcing alternatives?
I see no problem with companies outsourcing “non-core” functions overseas to achieve savings where there is no viable option here. However many companies here in the west could compete with the likes of China and India if they thought long and hard about what they are doing and how they can improve their efficiencies.
I have seen many small engineering companies that have closed as their main customers have outsourced their production to China to save money, these engineering companies have failed to look at how they can effectively reduce costs to compete with the overseas competition. Most small engineering companies that I have seen are vastly inefficient and use far too much labor and take far too long to produce products, almost as long as it takes to have the product produced by even more but cheaper labor in China and then delivered to the West.
These companies need to look at how they can compete with the lower costs of their overseas competitors, with the increasing fuel costs and so on the difference in prices is reducing significantly and it is getting easier to be able to compete through improving efficiencies. In addition to this the culture of these low wage companies overseas is not conducive to creating a quality product, the workers are not fully motivated and thus do not “care” about what they produce, this is causing many companies here in the west to suffer many quality issues that they never experienced with their “local” suppliers.
Reducing costs for western companies through implementing lean manufacturing techniques is a very real and viable option, most companies that try gain very real benefits that make a major impact on the bottom line of the business, this can then be translated into price cuts to keep business here. Other options are things like six sigma, lean sigma, agile manufacturing and any other business improvement technique you can think of. But in my mind lean is the most viable and well proven alternative.
It is not just the suppliers to these bigger companies that are outsourcing overseas that are suffering, the companies that are doing the outsourcing are also finding many problems with regards to deliveries, and quality. Some are also discovering that they have outsourced some key areas of their company and that they have harmed their ability to design new products quickly as they have no manufacturing capability locally with which to prototype and prove concepts.
The outsourced product savings are also being undermined as costs rise for the transport and the like, the countries to which we have outsourced will also start to increase wages as there becomes more competition for employees and the employees want to consume more and offered financial incentives from foreign governments will disappear, all leading to the cost savings made being eroded. This saving that the companies have made is not sustainable, as the costs rise it will slowly disappear, then what will they do? Move production to another low cost economy? Bringing it back home will be very difficult as once skills, knowledge and equipment are lost it will become harder and harder to bring the production back.
Maybe these companies should look for longer term cost savings that are sustainable, implement business improvement ideas internally and work with their suppliers to help them become more efficient. With the level of waste in our processes there are so many oportunities to find way to reduce these seven wastes and thus reduce costs. There are many alternatives to outsourcing overseas, we should learn how to implement lean manufacturing, six sigma, lean sigma or any of the other ways to reduce our internal costs and better focus on the customer!
I see no problem with companies outsourcing “non-core” functions overseas to achieve savings where there is no viable option here. However many companies here in the west could compete with the likes of China and India if they thought long and hard about what they are doing and how they can improve their efficiencies.
I have seen many small engineering companies that have closed as their main customers have outsourced their production to China to save money, these engineering companies have failed to look at how they can effectively reduce costs to compete with the overseas competition. Most small engineering companies that I have seen are vastly inefficient and use far too much labor and take far too long to produce products, almost as long as it takes to have the product produced by even more but cheaper labor in China and then delivered to the West.
These companies need to look at how they can compete with the lower costs of their overseas competitors, with the increasing fuel costs and so on the difference in prices is reducing significantly and it is getting easier to be able to compete through improving efficiencies. In addition to this the culture of these low wage companies overseas is not conducive to creating a quality product, the workers are not fully motivated and thus do not “care” about what they produce, this is causing many companies here in the west to suffer many quality issues that they never experienced with their “local” suppliers.
Reducing costs for western companies through implementing lean manufacturing techniques is a very real and viable option, most companies that try gain very real benefits that make a major impact on the bottom line of the business, this can then be translated into price cuts to keep business here. Other options are things like six sigma, lean sigma, agile manufacturing and any other business improvement technique you can think of. But in my mind lean is the most viable and well proven alternative.
It is not just the suppliers to these bigger companies that are outsourcing overseas that are suffering, the companies that are doing the outsourcing are also finding many problems with regards to deliveries, and quality. Some are also discovering that they have outsourced some key areas of their company and that they have harmed their ability to design new products quickly as they have no manufacturing capability locally with which to prototype and prove concepts.
The outsourced product savings are also being undermined as costs rise for the transport and the like, the countries to which we have outsourced will also start to increase wages as there becomes more competition for employees and the employees want to consume more and offered financial incentives from foreign governments will disappear, all leading to the cost savings made being eroded. This saving that the companies have made is not sustainable, as the costs rise it will slowly disappear, then what will they do? Move production to another low cost economy? Bringing it back home will be very difficult as once skills, knowledge and equipment are lost it will become harder and harder to bring the production back.
Maybe these companies should look for longer term cost savings that are sustainable, implement business improvement ideas internally and work with their suppliers to help them become more efficient. With the level of waste in our processes there are so many oportunities to find way to reduce these seven wastes and thus reduce costs. There are many alternatives to outsourcing overseas, we should learn how to implement lean manufacturing, six sigma, lean sigma or any of the other ways to reduce our internal costs and better focus on the customer!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Just In Time
Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing is one of the principles of lean manufacturing that can help you to improve your business.
The principle of Just In Time is producing what the customer wants when they want it, it is one of the main ideas behind lean manufacturing, if not the most import principle.
Why do I say that it is the most important principle? Because if you look at the definitions for lean manufacturing it is defining value in the eyes of the customer and making that value flow at the pull of the customer without having it delayed or caught up in inventory. Then striving for continual improvement in everything that you do.
Just In Time is about creating flow at the pull of the customer, it is about preventing the creation of work in progress and stock. It is through the implementation of JIT that waste is prevented, lean is not about waste elimination and reduction, through implementing JIT you PREVENT waste.
If you consider the implications of implementing Just In Time you will Prevent waste through the reduction of work in progress and stock due to trying to achieve single piece flow, close coupling of processes and pulling production through the process when ordered by the customer. Not producing large batches of material before the customer makes an order that require complex planning systems to coordinate them through the different processes, material handling equipment and people, space and containers for storage and so on.
Just In Time reduces costs through reduction in capital tied up in materials, reduction in people, reduction in space and many other savings. But many people look at this and say it can’t be done! You have to produce large batches, you have to forecast customer demand and so forth, but this is wrong, they are just hiding from the problems that force us to do this!
The reasons for large batches and forecasting demand is because we have problems within our production that we have failed to tackle. We have setups that are too long so we try to optimize the usage of the machines by extending the run times so that they are “economical”. We have reliability and quality problems with our equipment, our suppliers and our own processes, so we run large batches in advance of when the customer wants them just in case anything else goes wrong. We run large batches prior to the customer needing it just to cushion us from the effects of these problems, but in doing so we create more problems.
Just in Time manufacturing forces you to tackle these problems and remove these wastes from the your systems, designing a process with the principles of JIT in the first place will prevent the creation of waste in your systems.
Typically the first step in any implementation of Just in Time is the reduction of setup times so that you can be able to run smaller batches of materials, this is usually achieved through implementing a tool called single minute exchange of die (SMED). Once you can run smaller batches you can then work on the other principles, bringing processes closer together to enable (single piece) flow, then implementing kanban systems to allow production to be pulled through your processes.
The following links give some good descriptions of just in time and some case studies;
Just In Time Manufacturing
Just In Time
Just In Time Case Study
JIT Case Study
Just In Time Manufacturing Case Study
The principle of Just In Time is producing what the customer wants when they want it, it is one of the main ideas behind lean manufacturing, if not the most import principle.
Why do I say that it is the most important principle? Because if you look at the definitions for lean manufacturing it is defining value in the eyes of the customer and making that value flow at the pull of the customer without having it delayed or caught up in inventory. Then striving for continual improvement in everything that you do.
Just In Time is about creating flow at the pull of the customer, it is about preventing the creation of work in progress and stock. It is through the implementation of JIT that waste is prevented, lean is not about waste elimination and reduction, through implementing JIT you PREVENT waste.
If you consider the implications of implementing Just In Time you will Prevent waste through the reduction of work in progress and stock due to trying to achieve single piece flow, close coupling of processes and pulling production through the process when ordered by the customer. Not producing large batches of material before the customer makes an order that require complex planning systems to coordinate them through the different processes, material handling equipment and people, space and containers for storage and so on.
Just In Time reduces costs through reduction in capital tied up in materials, reduction in people, reduction in space and many other savings. But many people look at this and say it can’t be done! You have to produce large batches, you have to forecast customer demand and so forth, but this is wrong, they are just hiding from the problems that force us to do this!
The reasons for large batches and forecasting demand is because we have problems within our production that we have failed to tackle. We have setups that are too long so we try to optimize the usage of the machines by extending the run times so that they are “economical”. We have reliability and quality problems with our equipment, our suppliers and our own processes, so we run large batches in advance of when the customer wants them just in case anything else goes wrong. We run large batches prior to the customer needing it just to cushion us from the effects of these problems, but in doing so we create more problems.
Just in Time manufacturing forces you to tackle these problems and remove these wastes from the your systems, designing a process with the principles of JIT in the first place will prevent the creation of waste in your systems.
Typically the first step in any implementation of Just in Time is the reduction of setup times so that you can be able to run smaller batches of materials, this is usually achieved through implementing a tool called single minute exchange of die (SMED). Once you can run smaller batches you can then work on the other principles, bringing processes closer together to enable (single piece) flow, then implementing kanban systems to allow production to be pulled through your processes.
The following links give some good descriptions of just in time and some case studies;
Just In Time Manufacturing
Just In Time
Just In Time Case Study
JIT Case Study
Just In Time Manufacturing Case Study
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Lean History
Lean history is not, the world was created then it ended, history with all of the fat taken out.. I am talking about the history of lean manufacturing, the thing I spoke about in my last post.
If you don't remember lean is that thing that gets you to concentrate on the customer's value and make it flow like a little stream through your factory, whilst chopping out all of the waste to make things truly efficient.. I guess this means that instead of your stream slowly meandering through your factory it will rush through delivering your product straight out the other side without delay..
The ideas behind lean are not new, some of the principles of lean such as interchangeable parts date back to manufacturing muskets and production lines were used by the British Royal Navy to build pulleys and boats (or are they ships?)
Lean began to really move at the beginning of the last century when Ford built his production line to build the model T. Along with people like Taylor and some fellow called Gilbreth who was the inspiration behind cheaper by the dozen, all sorts of ideas began to circulate about measuring peoples efficiency and looking at the motion within their work, people were rapidly being turned into robots to repeat the same work over and over again as quickly as possible..
World war 2 arrived and Ford and some small aircraft manufacturer Boeing were trying to produce bombers the way they made cars, trying to manufacture one every hour..
After world war 2 things began to really change, the US decided to export all of it's crackpot business and quality gurus to Japan to help with building their economy there as it had had a slight set back..
Toyota, looking at what Ford had already done realised that they had to use not just Ford's principles but the ideas of Juran, Deming and all of the others that we sent there, added to their own observations about inventory being the biggest waste they began to develop the Toyota Production System..
Not long after the west began to notice that they were not making cheap plastic toys anymore but they were actually begging to dominate the automotive and other markets, people began to try to discover why, going off to visit and bring back ideas.
Lean was born in 1990 with the publication of "the machine that changed the world" a book that showed how Toyota had become the most efficient car producer.
Lean manufacturing finally arrived in the west and we have been trying to implement it ever since, the trouble is too many business owners think that they don't need lean or any other Japanese inspired fad so they ignore these ideas.. and thus they begin to slip behind.. further and further behind..
It is useful to understand the history if you want to implement it, history of lean manufacturing is a useful place to look..
QG.
If you don't remember lean is that thing that gets you to concentrate on the customer's value and make it flow like a little stream through your factory, whilst chopping out all of the waste to make things truly efficient.. I guess this means that instead of your stream slowly meandering through your factory it will rush through delivering your product straight out the other side without delay..
The ideas behind lean are not new, some of the principles of lean such as interchangeable parts date back to manufacturing muskets and production lines were used by the British Royal Navy to build pulleys and boats (or are they ships?)
Lean began to really move at the beginning of the last century when Ford built his production line to build the model T. Along with people like Taylor and some fellow called Gilbreth who was the inspiration behind cheaper by the dozen, all sorts of ideas began to circulate about measuring peoples efficiency and looking at the motion within their work, people were rapidly being turned into robots to repeat the same work over and over again as quickly as possible..
World war 2 arrived and Ford and some small aircraft manufacturer Boeing were trying to produce bombers the way they made cars, trying to manufacture one every hour..
After world war 2 things began to really change, the US decided to export all of it's crackpot business and quality gurus to Japan to help with building their economy there as it had had a slight set back..
Toyota, looking at what Ford had already done realised that they had to use not just Ford's principles but the ideas of Juran, Deming and all of the others that we sent there, added to their own observations about inventory being the biggest waste they began to develop the Toyota Production System..
Not long after the west began to notice that they were not making cheap plastic toys anymore but they were actually begging to dominate the automotive and other markets, people began to try to discover why, going off to visit and bring back ideas.
Lean was born in 1990 with the publication of "the machine that changed the world" a book that showed how Toyota had become the most efficient car producer.
Lean manufacturing finally arrived in the west and we have been trying to implement it ever since, the trouble is too many business owners think that they don't need lean or any other Japanese inspired fad so they ignore these ideas.. and thus they begin to slip behind.. further and further behind..
It is useful to understand the history if you want to implement it, history of lean manufacturing is a useful place to look..
QG.
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