Standards Outlook
2002
Column: Standards Outlook: Developing a new ISO 14001 reporting standard
Final guidelines expected to encourage external communication
The current ISO 14001 revision effort has provided an opportunity to revisit the issue of voluntary environmental reporting. Proposed language attempts to clarify the original intent by articulating two distinct points. The draft revision first...
Column: Standards Outlook: Quality Management System vs. Quality Improvement
What should we tell the CEO?
A column by James Harrington, a former company COO began, "All quality programs, whether TQM, Six Sigma or ISO 9000, require an organization to shift away from the status quo."
The article was about resistance to change, but the choice of words of a...
Column: Standards Outlook: Ask the right awareness questions
ISO 9001:2000 says employees understand quality and customer requirements
The new ISO 9001:2000 quality management system (QMS) standard has opened up several new lines of questioning (interviewing) that will help organizations connect all employees to quality and customers. Prior versions of the ISO 9000 series standards...
Column: Standards Outlook: Purchaser and Supplier Quality
Going beyond ISO 9001, QS-9000 and TS 16949
For quality to happen, quality control from the supplier's perspective is necessary. But evidence indicates suppliers do not always pursue the actions needed for quality improvement. Quality practitioners...
Column: Standards Outlook: ISO 9001:2000's Process Approach
A new concept or the same old stuff?
Questions and answers on the process approach of ISO...
Column: Standards Outlook: The Whole Truth And Nothing But the Truth
Lying to the FDA will always get you in trouble
It usually starts as a little white lie. The worst case finale is a not so brief vacation at the federal penitentiary. The philosophy is usually the same: What they don't know won't hurt them. The truth is what they don't know...
Column: Standards Outlook: Add Value to ISO 9001:2000 Audits
The standard's revision provides the opportunity to help organizations improve the way they do business
Quality auditors have been criticized for not adding value to what they do for clients. The ISO 9001:2000 revision provides an opportunity to change...
ISO 14004 to offer practical guidance.
More examples and alignment to be among the improvements
The release of ISO 14004 accompanied the publication of ISO 14001, the environmental management standard, in 1996. That initial guidance effort was limited by an inability to draw on actual experiences--ISO 14004 was written concurrently with ISO 14001 an...
Column: Standards Outlook: ISO 14004 To Offer Practical Guidance
More examples and alignment to be among the improvements
Like its ISO 14001 counterpart, ISO 14004 is now being revised. Unlike ISO 14001, ISO 14004 is in the process of undergoing significant cosmetic and substantive changes.
The most significant changes in the revised draft...
Column: Standards Outlook: Where Does Quality Begin?
It begins with the PDCA cycle and an understanding of variation--not with ISO 9001
A quality system is not a standard, but rather a Deming-style "system of profound knowledge," consisting of: Appreciation for a system; Knowledge about variation; Theory of knowledge; and Psychology. Problems show up in the "corrective and preventive...
Column: Standards Outlook: Auditing ISO 9001:2000 For Control and Improvement
Use PDCA for control and ACDP for improvement
Understanding of control is central to successful implementation of almost all standards. In fact, a standard may be thought of as a collection of controls management must implement for systems such as safety, quality, environment and accounting. A...
Column: Standards Outlook: Automotive Quality Management System Evolves
ISO Technical Specification (TS) 16949, based on ISO 9000, is an international fundamental quality management system specification for the automotive industry. The author looks at the second edition's significant changes from...
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