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 […]

For too many businesses, the day-to-day experience of maintaining and working under a management system, is that the system processes and procedures are an extra layer of paperwork to be tolerated or worked around; management system documentation is perceived as too complex and (if it is followed at all) is simply a check-box exercise aimed […]

Demand for sustainable or environmentally friendly products and services is quite rightly seeing a continuing upward trend among consumers and businesses, with 43% of consumers actively choosing brands due to their environmental performance. This demand has encouraged some businesses to make misleading claims about the impacts associated with their products. With increasing public attention on […]

Flowcharts are a visual way of recording an activity or process flow, they are a very useful way of recording knowledge of how the business operates. Creating an overall flowchart of what a business actually does, using the information gathered from the people who actually do it is so important - and can also come […]

The environment is a massive area (510M km2 to be precise) but with different implications and meanings across the whole ISO family. Let us start with the obvious one, ISO14001 Environmental Management; which covers an organisations impacts (negative and positive!) on the environment. When thinking about the geographic context of environmental impacts, generally these vary […]