Quality Management is regularly seen as a cost center. The organization may have the feeling they need to shell out a significant amount of money to set up a Quality Management System and get it off…
Nick Appel17/09/2019
The introduction of the new ISO 9001: 2015 a couple of years back set off a widespread belief that companies don’t really need procedures anymore. We have seen companies cutting down their procedures, some by around…
Nick Appel10/09/2019
Everybody in Quality knows that having a functioning Quality Management System will reduce costs. Maybe not the next day, but in the long haul it will make the company money if it is functioning properly—and this…
Nick Appel26/08/2019
The mobile phone and usage of apps has got a prominent place in our lives—maybe a bit too prominent. Still, many companies don’t allow their employees to use their mobile phones during work time. There are…
Nick Appel19/08/2019
Last week part of the roof of a big soccer stadium in Holland collapsed due to a heavy storm. Luckily no one was injured because there was no game at the time. The media storm that…
Nick Appel14/08/2019
The world is getting smaller, which means a more diverse company culture and multicultural organisation with multiple languages. Lots of companies work with people from different countries. Whether it is a trucker, a specialist engineer, or…
Nick Appel15/07/2019
NCRs and issues happen in any company. The way the company handles these is what defines the culture of the organization. More often than not, the responsibility is simply dropped at the Quality/Safety department regardless of…
Nick Appel02/07/2019
Possibly one of the hardest things to do is make a selection of all the possible improvement projects that are possible for the company. Talks with quality and safety managers showed that this topic is pretty…
Nick Appel26/06/2019
Data consistency might not have anything to do with quality management. However, because quality management is getting more and more data-driven it is becoming increasingly important. Consistent data allows for easier and better analysis, which leads…
Nick Appel20/06/2019
According to the standard, all staff that work under your organization's control are competent, and the evidence of this is documented accordingly. As with much of the ISO language, competence is left for each organization to…
Nick Appel13/06/2019
Quality objectives are measurable goals and the base of long-term quality improvement planning. After setting a target, simply hoping that changes occur to achieve the goal is not an effective way to improve a QMS. You…
Nick Appel06/06/2019
On Wednesday 22 May, we organized a workshop on time pressure and the effect on quality and safety. Time pressure can have a major impact on quality and safety, which can lead to serious accidents. In…
Nick Appel28/05/2019
In the previous post we touched upon the inputs for the Design and Development Clause of the ISO 9001 standard. The outputs are closely related to the inputs of course, but they have some twists to…
Nick Appel21/05/2019
ISO Over the Years. There are different ISO standards and worldwide many companies are using these different ISO standards. In the image below you see which standards are used over the years. There are different standards…
Nick Appel20/05/2019
Clause 8.3 Design and Development is regularly misunderstood—not just by Quality Managers but by Auditors as well. It is one of the toughest and most confusing clauses and we find a lot of questions regarding clause…
Nick Appel14/05/2019
Filling out paper forms is very time-consuming. No one enjoys it, especially when it means a lot of extra work after forms are filled in. Usually the forms have to be checked and re-entered to the…
Nick Appel07/05/2019
The continuous improvement plans created have to be implemented properly to really add value. Coming up with the plan or idea is the easy part. Making sure the plan is fully implemented and supported by the…
Nick Appel01/05/2019
Yes, it might seem enticing, all your QMS information into your ERP. We can have all the information in one system, this will make it much easier for the employees. But is it really that simple?…
Nick Appel25/04/2019
Sadly, at any given time, approximately 1 in 5 workers is likely to be experiencing a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety. This is estimated to cost the global economy $16 trillion by 2030.…
Nick Appel19/04/2019
We have talked quite extensively about the importance of a good safety culture. It is essential to keep people safe at work and make sure everybody goes home healthy at the end of the day. However,…
Nick Appel12/04/2019
