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Making quality simple, practical and flexible |
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Sick & tired of
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FAQs -->Quality manual Quality Manual - what is it?The quality manual is an important part of your 'quality documentation'. It can be the sum total of your documentation, or just part of it. Your system must be documented, according to ISO 9001. There are specific requirements to include:
You add anything else you decide is necessary. This depends on your organisation. It may be anything from checklists and flowcharts to engineering drawings or workflow embedded in IT systems. What does a Quality Manual look like?It really depends on what is needed. Think of a sports car, a delivery van or a SUV. While they're all vehicles, what's "right" in one situation won't be in another. A smallish business might only need a single manual, whereas a large company might require many. The manual/s can be hardcopy (paper) or softcopy: online documents like web pages, help files, even internal IT systems. And they can be done in various ways, from easy to very hard. The best way of understanding the 'quality manual' is to look at a good example, and preferably a couple. Widespread popular belief still thinks there is a single acceptable format. There isn't. Also, it isn't possible (fortunately!) to state definitively that it must always look like this, and always have certain exact headings. What not to doIf you have seen previous examples of 'Quality Manuals', the chances are very high that you've seen only poor examples. They proliferated, and particularly before the big changes of the version of the Standard that was released in 2000. The old 1994 model that it replaced truly resulted in some quite awful manuals of very doubtful value. They were always thick, and generally ugly. They used numbered sections, based on each clause of the Standard, (4.1, 4.2, 4.3 etc). This made absolutely no sense to anyone who didn't know the clauses of the Standard by heart. Usually they were full of weird words, convoluted language, lots of 'shalls' and laborious detail. They used 'quality speak' throughout - unfamiliar terms like 'Contract Review' or 'Process Control' and others. And 'QUALITY MANUAL' would be liberally plastered everywhere (because you certainly wouldn't have guessed it!), usually IN CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS WHICH ARE HARD TO READ. Perhaps you've seen one like that? If not, check this example quality manual to see what I'm talking about.
And too many so-called 'ISO quality systems' (far too many!) still have copious reams of documentation. That often no one can follow, much less use. Why? Because many people still believe that's what a 'quality manual' should be. And that a 'proper' quality manual must have a policy and matching procedures for each and every clause in the Standard.... Which means an absolute minimum of 22 written policies and procedures, and perhaps more, no matter what type of company you are, or your size! That's an awful lot of paperwork, of very dubious value. And particularly if they refer (as they often do) to things you've never heard of, let alone understand. Don't fall for that trap! That approach will give you a pile of wordy documents, when you really don't need them. Unless of course you regularly use procedures with names like "Design Control", "Management Review", "Nonconformance" and so on? And want every procedure to be pages long, each beginning with a 'Scope' and 'Definitions' and 'Terminology'.... And hard to read? What's that? You don't want something like that? Of course you don't. Actually, having am ISO 9001 quality manual that no one reads or uses is a very common mistake people. (My free report tells you how to avoid it, and others.) Good quality manuals are very different. You see, research shows information that is well designed and clearly presented has measurable benefits; eg, a well designed intranet doubled employee productivity. Keep procedures clear and short
>> See a sample procedure from Mapwright. I've been writing clear, simple documents for many years. Clients and customers know and tell me my approach to writing quality manuals works. Quality manual, policies and procedures - easy templates with full guidelines for quality systems.
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