Discussion
I keep geting asked for this accreditation, and don't have it.
I have looked at a number of ISO9001 web sites and as a very small company with 2 or 3 employees, a dozen or so sub-contract staff who do a few hours a week it seems unsuited to us. I already have ethical guidelines and a professional membership with requirements.
Anybody got any experience of introducing such QA schemes in very small organisations, and importantly the cost of all this?
We implemented it when we were 4 strong (now 26) and it was very painless
There's a company called QMS that will get you through in 30 days and it costs around £800 (from memory) for a small business. There's really not much too it, so it is worth having especially if you business with the public sector.
Let me know if you want any further info / contact details
Jason
There's a company called QMS that will get you through in 30 days and it costs around £800 (from memory) for a small business. There's really not much too it, so it is worth having especially if you business with the public sector.
Let me know if you want any further info / contact details
Jason
flyingjase said:
We implemented it when we were 4 strong (now 26) and it was very painless
There's a company called QMS that will get you through in 30 days and it costs around £800 (from memory) for a small business. There's really not much too it, so it is worth having especially if you business with the public sector.
Let me know if you want any further info / contact details
Jason
There's a company called QMS that will get you through in 30 days and it costs around £800 (from memory) for a small business. There's really not much too it, so it is worth having especially if you business with the public sector.
Let me know if you want any further info / contact details
Jason
That is grat, many thanks. I have contacted QMS. The cost for us is £1000 plus £350 PA.
I still feel I need convincing that govt. procurers take any notice of it as for a small company it is a cost which I would have to be sure was needed.
Mattt said:
As one S/C said to me 'you can be as 
as you like, as long as you document how you are'.
as you like, as long as you document how you are'. IMHO it's a paper pushers dream.
It is also real grief for anyone trying to improve the process.
ISO9001 concentrates on repeatability and consistency,
not process improvement, so any continuous process
improvement, like you get in the higher levels
of the SEI model, just doesn't happen.
mr.man said:
One glorious paper chase in my opinion. When firms need your product or service they will buy from you regardless.
(broken power station late on a Friday night springs to mind)
(broken power station late on a Friday night springs to mind)
OK, ISO9001-2000 is a laid out set of rules and guidelines that were laid out by a consortium of professionals from all areas of industry. The standard was then drawn up by the British Standards Institute to produce a document that can be used by anyone who wishes to improve there systems and procedures. I was also designed to protect the customer as an end result.
As a buyer from some companies you are only allowed to purchase items from "your" approved suppliers list, this list will be unique to your company, all of the suppliers on this list will have been vetted (audited) either by you or an accredited Quality body i.e. BSI, Lloyds, Det Norse Veritas (DNV) Etc.
So you cannot buy from who "you" as an employee likes, you must purchase from an approved vendor. Now the Corporate stance in some large companies is that you can only buy from approved (certified) suppliers. So regardless of “When firms need your product or service they will buy from you regardless” NOT SO! In the automotive industry to name one, unless you are certified to ISO9001-2000 or higher companies will not use you regardless of how good you are.
There a basically 8 sections to the standard covering all the usual aspects of a business.
Within these 8 sections the word “shall“ appears over 130 times as long as you comply with these requirements you will usually attain the accreditation.
You will be audited on a yearly basis by your accreditor to ensure that you are meeting the requirements of the standard.
Sorry for the long post it could have been longer it’s an in depth standard.
How do I know? See my profile.
In my experience it's a paperwork exercise as some other posters have mentioned. My last company discontinued using it as we weren't gaining any benefit for the time required to administer it. The automotive OEM's we were developing for didn't seem to mind.
Having said that, it does ensure that you have proper documented & auditable processes although I'd consider essential to any decent business to have such processes in place anyway. Other factors to consider would be whether you would be losing out by not having it (ie clients request it) or whether you feel the image of having the accreditation is of benefit to you.
Having said that, it does ensure that you have proper documented & auditable processes although I'd consider essential to any decent business to have such processes in place anyway. Other factors to consider would be whether you would be losing out by not having it (ie clients request it) or whether you feel the image of having the accreditation is of benefit to you.
Leftie said:
I keep geting asked for this accreditation, and don't have it.
I have looked at a number of ISO9001 web sites and as a very small company with 2 or 3 employees, a dozen or so sub-contract staff who do a few hours a week it seems unsuited to us. I already have ethical guidelines and a professional membership with requirements.
Anybody got any experience of introducing such QA schemes in very small organisations, and importantly the cost of all this?
Pete before you pay out for QMS, check to see if your customers wants UKAS accreditation.
We were with QMS for several years until a specific customer requested that our quality managment system had to be UKAS accredited. QMS are not.
cost us Sh!t loads to change.
UKAS accreditation means you need to be audited by a 3rd party.
We still use QMS for ISO 14001 though.
Scaramouch
In our industry it is a must to work for major motoring organisations. Due to the fact that our industry is so competitive it is one of the differentiating factors and as such is worth it in that sense. On the other hand, it has little practical implications for the day to day running of the business. As has already been mentioned, it isn't that painful if you can handle paper and if it opens doors it could be worthwhile in the long-run regardless of the size of your company.
Regards...
Regards...
Anyone in industry knows that QMS are the kings of the ISO equivalant of a dodgy MOT, they are cheap but very slack, you don't really get any added value to your business as they dish out stock manuals with only fine tuning done for each company all you really get for your money is a certificate that enables you to answer "yes" when you're asked if you have it. In all honesty that might be just what you want and perfectly suitable for your business so not a bad thing, afterall I know it was for me when I got mine in 1995 from QAS who are even cheaper and even slacker, any good QA manager will smile when he audits you and sees who has certificated but then again why should he worry because he can still tick his boxes and enjoy an easier life.
We use BM Trada for audits - very thorough and professional.
www.bmtrada.co.uk
I was tasked with implementation of our quality system - biggest hurdle was getting buy in that it would actully do something for us.
www.bmtrada.co.uk
I was tasked with implementation of our quality system - biggest hurdle was getting buy in that it would actully do something for us.
Edited by Nicholas Blair on Thursday 19th April 07:47
Edited by Nicholas Blair on Thursday 19th April 07:48
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