Intelligent ISO 9001 quality management -  simple, practical and flexible

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About Jane


I work with organisations who want a quality management system that is simple, practical and flexible.


Jane Bennett, Director, Principal ConsultantI work with organisations who want good quality management.  Some want ISO 9001 certification, while others want to simplify or improve an existing system or just to have a sound quality system. 

To do this, I use a wide and sometimes eclectic range of skills and techniques.  Sources include research, education, experience, learning and studying what works and what doesn't.

Mixing consulting, analysis, discussion, coaching, presenting, examples and humour, I work with you to achieve your goals and get the results you want, as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort. 

Why the emphasis on speed and minimal effort?  Because I always seek maximum results for the lowest possible effort and cost.  'Working with slender means' as one client termed it.

As Director and Principal Consultant, I get pleasure from well designed management systems which support the demands of the people who use them.  Unfortunately, this often happens too rarely.

My focus is on achieving real value and results: I work only with businesses and organisations where getting this is possible.  The clients I work with will have a real desire to improve and an ethical approach.  Because if we don't share these important traits, the consultancy won't work for either of us.

I am particularly highly skilled in:

  • interpreting and applying  the ISO 9001 Standard and its demands with intelligence, simplicity and flexibility
  • finding solutions that are practical and work well
  • helping people and organisations to improve their performance, achieve measurable results and thus to become more effective.

As an entrepreneur, I also create my own products, such as the ISO 9001 DIY Pack.  An achiever and a problem-solver, I aim to constantly exceed expectations. I am passionate about what I do.

Core Values

  • Honesty: I tell the truth, which includes putting client interests first - if you don't need it or my company isn't right for you, I'll tell you
  • Excellence: doing the best work I am capable of
  • Commitment: you can depend on me to meet deadlines and do what was agreed
  • Value: if it isn't valuable, I don't do it, much less charge for it.

Career Summary

For almost 20 years I've worked in the business world as consultant, quality manager, business coach, business analyst, technical writer, process analyst and communications consultant. In a previous life, I was a company director, owning and running retail businesses, and also a teacher of communications and English, mainly to adults. 

I'm a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, and a later Graduate Diploma of Business Information Technology, registered Principal Auditor and certified Coach.  The post-graduate IT diploma extended many self-taught skills, and helps me talk with analysts and developers.  I can translate function-based 'geek speak' into information people actually understand, and more importantly, use and act upon. Systems and technology can be wonderful, but they should exist to serve people, not the other way around. 

I've worked across Australia and New Zealand for clients in Australia's top 50 list, and learned how big businesses operate. Highlights include seeing diamonds in the rough mined near Kunnunurra, the vast landscape of the Kimberley, watching the sun set over the Arafura Sea in the far north, and the wildly beautiful landscape of Tasmania. 

I've looked into small, medium and large organisations, and worked on all kinds of projects from formal engineering feasibility studies, process re-engineering and major systems developments and implementations to desiging online help, creating cultural change, Year 2000 rectification, and corporate intranets and web sites. 

As for documenting: policy, business processes, procedures... from functional specifications and test reports, to codes of conduct, guidelines, business strategies, business plans, quality plans, 300-page tenders and post-implementation project reviews, I've planned, analysed, written or reviewed almost every type of document you can think of.

And then of course quality systems. 

The Road to Quality

Working on business processes and management systems, I concluded that while ISO 9001 was a sensible standard, there was a real problem in how it was usually put into practice. Most systems were based on a typical old-style manufacturing model.  These certainly didn't work well for service companies or those who were project-based.  (They often didn't work as well as they could for manufacturers either.)

There just had to be better, easier, more practical ways of doing ISO 9001. 

For a start, those doorstop manuals had to go.  And the culture of forms and bureaucracy.  And wads of lengthy written procedures, too often just for the sake of having written procedures?  Too often people shunned them, and for good reason.

Where I started was with a belief that a successful business already had a functioning quality system, but it "wasn't ISO" yet. 

I then drew on my experience as analyst, presenter, documenter, technical writer, teacher, trainer and coach to find new ways to do quality management systems, and gradually refined my unique approach using more experience from different situations.  

Example:  a small but successful consulting firm had already failed the ISO 9001 hurdle twice; the negative legacy this left included a very sour attitude toward  "quality", so a turn-around in attitude was essential.  Using some cultural change management skills helped get the whole company involved, and get 'buy-in' from a few  key players. 

We picked a problem spot where the only consistent thing was frequent problems, costing time and money. With the help of the key people, this was re-engineered. Out went the 2 massive volumes of detailed procedures, and the third they were struggling to complete.  Because a business of 25 people couldn't afford to maintain such a large system, and it didn't need to.

How much would they need? The people were competent and  experienced: they didn't need lots of detail.  So the massive volumes were replaced with a single, concise handbook of a dozen flowchart procedures.   From 400+ pages down to about 40.

In less than a year, the coveted certification was proudly achieved.  With a dynamic and 'skinny' system, flexible enough to support a rapidly changing company with multiple clients and projects. 

Another example: For Unisys, I was Quality Manager on the Year 2000 Rectification Program for ANZ Bank: a multi-million dollar, 3½ year effort spanning business units across Australia and internationally.  Their existing ISO 9002 system was cumbersome and bureaucratic: an old-style 1994 manufacturing QA model, groaning under a mass of documents, forms, 'quality stamps' and red tape.

I stripped it. Aimed for many fewer, and far shorter documents.  Threw out the excess.  Joined formerly isolated separate procedures into end-to-end processes, applying a process approach well before the 2000 Standard.  This reduced the number of procedures by 40%, people could now see how what they did affected others, and another benefit was reduced time on maintaining documents.

The revised, more practical system worked well for the project team, and enabled us to rapidly bring new personnel up to speed on requirements.  It was highly praised at multiple external audits.  And later I applied a similar model to ANZ's Group-wide Program Management Office - it received one of the first Australian certificates to the 2000 version of ISO 9001 shortly after its release.

Other project management expertise includes developing common standards, structure and content for the launch of ANZ's original Project in a Box, an intranet project management system: standard processes, templates and procedures for their major projects. 

Intelligent Quality Management

In 1998 I started my own company, Mapwright Pty Ltd.  (The name refers to creating new maps or paths, and has no connection with cartography.)  In 2007 I began trading under the registered business name of Intelligent Quality Management, to describe my approach more accurately.  The feedback from many clients confirms the value they receive. 

Working with a network of other experienced consultants and associates, I make sure my clients receive the highest possible levels of service quality.  My associates are highly skilled, personally selected and carefully monitored to ensure client requirements are met and my exacting standards.

When not working I enjoy walking with our Director of Leisure Pursuits, learning, visiting galleries or museums, singing, investing, travelling (photos from my last trip here), reading, gardening, cooking, listening to music and spending time with friends.

 

 

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Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.
- attributed to Albert Einstein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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