Content by Miriam Boudreaux
Five Signs Your Company Is in Dire Need of Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action TrainingStop fighting the auditors and get back to basics
Tue, 01/07/2020 - 12:03
If you are wondering whether your organization could benefit from formal root cause analysis (RCA) and corrective action training, read on to see if any of these issues are present in your day-to-day operations. RCA and corrective actions are some…
Five Key Standards Trends to Watch in 2018The rules are changing, and time is running out
Mon, 01/22/2018 - 12:03
If you are a manufacturing company or a service provider, there is a good chance that you have heard about standards such as ISO 9001. In fact, you may already be certified. But whether you are certified or not, read on for some of the expected…
Don’t Let Resources Sit IdleDownturns are great opportunities for standards registration
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 15:37
Before 2015, many of us rode one of the largest waves of success in the history of the oil and gas industry. Everything was booming—companies, salaries, bonuses, cities, services, etc. Then 2015 came and crashed the party, leaving us all a bit…
QMS Documentation: Don’t Get Trapped by Your WordsConditional words or phrases can keep you from painting yourself into a corner
Wed, 06/18/2014 - 10:45
Sometimes interpreting ISO 9001 or API Q1/API Q2 requirements seems to force us to agree to things we won’t be able to do, or to sustain for more than a few months, let alone days. So how do we write our policies and procedures to explain our…
Two QMS Questions AnsweredHow to handle numbering schemes and ‘grapevine’ processes
Wed, 06/04/2014 - 16:58
I frequently get asked questions from clients and readers about how to handle the everyday maintenance of a useful and compliant ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS). I thought I’d address a couple of those questions that I feel many people can…
The Abominable Quality Manual, Part TwoHow to write an ISO- or API-compliant quality manual
Thu, 04/10/2014 - 12:54
In part one of this series I described how many auditors want your quality manual to repeat what is in ISO 9001, API Spec Q1, or API Spec Q2. Since auditors don’t always make the connection between how you wrote the quality manual (in a way that’s…
The Abominable Quality Manual, Part OneRepeating a standard verbatim isn’t very useful for continual improvement
Thu, 04/03/2014 - 10:59
Have you ever seen a quality manual that didn't look exactly like the ISO 9001 standard? Not lately, probably. Nowadays, most quality manuals I see look like mirror images of an ISO standard or the American Petroleum Institute (API) Specification…
Who Is in Charge of Customer Satisfaction? Is it the quality department or the sales department?
Mon, 09/16/2013 - 10:16
If your company is ISO-certified or thinking about becoming so, you may already know that meeting customer requirements and achieving customer satisfaction is paramount to the certification. However, it’s not always clear who should be in charge of…
ISO Audit: Five Not-So-Easy QuestionsBe prepared to answer these queries from your auditor
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 13:06
Have you ever been through an audit to an ISO standard? If you have, then you probably know about a set of questions that are frequently asked during audits against various ISO standards. No one can predict all of the questions that an auditor will…
Antithesis of a Politician: The Good Quality ProfessionalThe differences are extreme, but we have tools to define them
Mon, 11/05/2012 - 14:43
Have you ever wondered how most politicians are made? Where do they come from? It’s as if they live in a different dimension than the rest of us. They are definitely different from average quality folk. In fact, good quality professionals are the…