Content by Craig Cochran
A Quality Lesson from HopeulikitAlways check references
Mon, 04/17/2006 - 22:00
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and they also distribute imported products produced by…
Fundamentals of Effective Customer FeedbackListen carefully, respond quickly
Mon, 03/13/2006 - 22:00
Customer feedback is the single most important type of communication an organization can receive. It is confirmation of the organization’s purpose in life and its ability to deliver on this purpose. Feedback can ultimately determine whether the…
Three Keys to Successful Internal AuditingKeep these in mind to accomplish your goals.
Mon, 01/30/2006 - 22:00
Internal auditing is one of the most routine improvement tools available to organizations. In fact, it’s so ordinary that auditors sometimes forget the underlying principles of auditing. Auditors must be periodically reminded of these underlying…
Leadership Drives Customer Focus
Mon, 01/02/2006 - 22:00
Customer focus doesn’t evolve on its own. It’s carefully cultivated over time through a variety of processes. At the forefront of this effort is leadership. The organization’s leadership has the primary responsibility of making every…
The Top 10 Training Topics for Customer FocusThese ideas will help you create the most important element for business success: customer loyalty
Sun, 03/06/2005 - 11:01
Training is profoundly strategic. It’s a process aimed at improving the single most important resource in the organization: people. Nothing affects customer loyalty more than the behaviors and competencies of employees. Training is the most…
Lean Management Systems RevisitedAn analysis of fundamental lean processes
Sun, 07/11/2004 - 22:00
Lean means doing the most with what you have. It’s efficiency and intelligence. In the modern economy, lean is a fact of life. Management systems must absolutely be lean, or they will be abandoned as impractical dinosaurs. In the October…
Lean Supplier ManagementA lean approach to typical elements of supplier management
Mon, 06/07/2004 - 22:00
Supplier management is one of the most troublesome disciplines within a management system. There’s nothing inherently difficult about it, though. Companies make it difficult by instilling the process with lots of unwieldy bureaucracy. The trick is…
Ten Essential Audit Questions To Reveal Your Organization’s Overall Performance
Fri, 03/05/2004 - 11:01
Editor’s story update 6/15/2017: This article was originally published on our site in 2004. Although it references ISO 9001:2000 rather than the current version of the quality management standard, Cochran’s 10 questions remain useful for…
Document Control Made EasyISO 9001:2000's mandates can be a blessing rather than a curse.
Sun, 06/02/2002 - 18:06
Because information in document form drives nearly every action in any organization, the ability to control this information usually means the difference between success and failure. Thus, document control remains the single most critical quality…
Using Quality Objectives to Drive Strategic Performance ImprovementFocusing your improvement efforts will bring you better results.
Wed, 11/01/2000 - 10:58
The most significant change in the upcoming revision to ISO 9001 is probably not what you'd expect it to be: It's not customer satisfaction, continual improvement or even the process-model structure of the standard. The most significant change is…