How many times have you had issues with your suppliers or contractors and the root cause of that issue turned out to be that they just didn't have the right information or clear information from your organisation? It happens more often than people care to admit yet there is no need for this to happen if you actually take a bit of time and think abo...

Up till now Section 8 of ISO9001:2015 has been really dealing with the planning of the provision of your products and services, in clause 8.5 however that changes to the actual delivery of your products and services and there is a bit to think about here, thankfully you have been working through all the previous clauses in which case this part is e...

Clause 8.5.2 of ISO9001:2015 is a very brief section which outlines the need for the organisation to (it's got that Shall word in it again meaning you must) be able to identify and trace their products and services, it's brief but important, here's why.   Identification Let's start with identification since you would find it tricky to trace an...

When I worked in subcontract electronics, we build products for a great range of organisations and a great range of industries. One of the challenges there is making sure you test things properly before you ship them both electrically and mechanically where a specific fit is required. Sometimes we would build the test gear and sometimes the custome...

Preservation may sound like an unusual thing to talk about when it comes to ISO9001:2015 but that's exactly what clause 8.5.4 is all about and as is the tendency for this standard it's a small clause, only 20 words in fact, and a short note to give some hints, surely that can't be a big deal then?... well it is and here's why. Clause 8.5.4 is 100% ...

ISO9001:2015 clause 8.5.5 – Post Delivery Activities is as the name suggests, all about how you support your customers after they get their hands on your products or services. Before going too much further just pause for a second and think about the time when you have bought say a car or a new cell phone and you wanted to follow up support for it, ...

Have you ever had one of those days when you are working through something you have done many times before only for someone to say, oh hey we changed how we do that, or we don't use those parts now we changed that? Frustrating isn't it? It's also pretty wasteful as it can create a bunch of rework or worse useless products or services no one wants o...

What is the signal within your organisation that your product or service is ready to be handed over to the customer? That is essentially the question that ISO9001:2015 is asking in Clause 8.6 – Release of Products and Services. Previously we have talked about verification and validation of your product or service to ensure that it meets the end use...

Unless you are operating in some mystical nirvana the reality is at some point you are going to have rework in your organisation, you have rework because you have a non-conforming output and so ISO9001:2015 has some requirements for you to meet in order to ensure that you control these adequately. The other thing that tends to happen around non-con...

When we talk to people about ISO9001 there are a few things that come up as the reasons not to do it, one is the need to document things, the other is around non-conformance and the final one is always the need for doing internal audits. Typically, I get told we fail enough external audits to know what we need to fix anyway! Or worse – we never fai...