Where do I start?! This topic is so broad and can mean so many different things, from that shoddy quality broken package that arrived from Amazon to the best quality Christmas Pudding for our Socially distanced Christmas dinner. We have all experienced varying levels of quality in the goods and services we buy, but this […]

Processes exist in every element in life. Whether its your morning routine, or sales order process or manufacturing and assembling products. Documenting processes can be an excellent tool, however there are some really important rules that are worth applying: Develop a process mapping control, this ensures your process mapping approach is consistent Processes must be […]

Setting Objectives is an important Top Management activity and one that sometimes isn't given the attention it deserves! Good objectives are based on an understanding of the context of the organisation (i.e. what is going on outside and inside the business) as well as on the risks needing to be controlled and the opportunities to […]

(Or Non-conformity – let’s not get into that debate now!) A non-conformance describes a failure to meet a requirement, it might be a business requirement, a customer requirement or a regulatory requirement. Whilst NCs are never a good thing, trend analysis of NCs can be a vital indicator to a Management Team of the extent […]

Next up in our A-Z! For some, the image of a quality manual is a dusty lever arch file that gets shoved on a high shelf in the Quality Office, the dust ceremoniously blown off in a bit of a panic a few days before the annual ISO surveillance visit, it’s probably not been looked […]

For any business or project looking to understand and manage down its environmental impacts or risks, it is essential to look beyond just the immediate function of the business or operation of the product / asset being built. For example, the likely immediate impacts associated with an advertising company based in a large office, will […]

Kaizen is the name given to the concept of continuous improvement, literally “Kai” meaning “change” and “zen” meaning “good”. The concept was first introduced by Japanese Organisational Theorist, Masaaki Imai in his seminal publication, “Kaizen: The key to Japan’s competitive Advantage”. The philosophy has been adopted by thousands of companies across the world ever since. […]

Just-in-Time is not ‘just’ my approach to Christmas shopping, (although admittedly I’ve never been one of those super organised people who buy their Christmas Shopping in the January Sales!), Just-in-Time relates also to a methodology developed in Japan and made popular by Toyota in the 1970s. Just-in-Time has its roots in manufacturing and logistics and […]

While any responsible business will be familiar with the regulatory and legislative requirements that apply to its operations, and will dedicate time and resource to ensuring compliance with these, how many organisations place a similar level of importance on understanding the needs, expectations and requirements placed on them by the multitude of internal and external […]