Frustration is the Rule

by Ann
(Montrreal )

I started with Quality Assurance to help with the procedure writing and general document management based on my previous experience with ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.

The first warning came soon enough... our Quality Assurance Manager left for a new position 3 weeks before the audit! We did manage to get through the certification audit though we had 9 non-conformities; luckily all minor.

Fast forward a year: another Quality Assurance Manager leaves, Senior Management assigns one person to two conflicting positions (Quality Assurance AND Production), non-conformities recorded and sent to the auditor as completed are not done, procedures are changed on a whim (let's not finalize until we get all the kinks worked out but let's expect everyone to follow it anyway), the Quality manual is out of date (don't bother us with that we have too many other things to do) and surprise, surprise, we fail a desk audit. No kidding, we can't even make it to the surveillance audit!

Now we are looking at a Re-Certification audit coming soon and our biggest sticking point this time? Metrics and KPIs! Yes, they are due monthly but it's an exercise in futility when Management keeps giving extensions.

Management really needs to buy-in to ISO or you end up with another non-survival ISO story like this one. As we try to tell them, ISO is a business practice, not a trophy on the shelf or a plaque on the wall.

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