Beware of the “Smoke and Mirrors” ISO Consultant

1. Beware of the “Smoke and Mirrors” ISO Consultant Pressure has been steadily increasing over the years on companies further down the supply chain to become ISO certified. This is happening as a result of the changes a company goes through when implementing an ISO compliant quality system, or at least the changes ISO intends for a company to go through as they address the basic risks identified in the standard. Companies who have seen the real benefits of implementing ISO the right way, now understand the value and want their suppliers to do the same, if only to minimize their own obligations to babysit the quality of their suppliers and the impact that has on the product or service they are responsible for maintaining. “Smoke and mirrors” ISO consultant. But this is not always the case if you are unfortunate enough to engage what we like to call, the “smoke and mirrors” ISO consultant. This “old-school” type of consultant has the mindset to take a path to certification that makes your documentation all about the standard, and as little as possible about what your company actually does. The Real Cost of a “Smoke and mirrors” QMS Let’s consider how much is lost when that happens. Without a living, breathing, actual connection between your people and your procedures, every penny you spend implementing a smoke and mirrors quality system is mostly wasted, and it adds even more waste to maintain your certification because you can’t rely on actual data generated by normal daily use in preparation for the next audit. Inevitably there is a huge amount of time spent fabricating what an auditor will need to see at their next visit, days or weeks before they arrive.

2. Why would you want to do that to your company? In some circumstances, that ISO certificate will definitely have an impact on business development, and even the hope of a positive impact has motivated many companies to take the low road and implement a smoke and mirrors QMS, even with the help of a supposed “ISO consultant.” The Real Reason to Implement a Quality Management System In reality, the business development impact should be considered a bonus, if it happens, and the real reason to implement an ISO compliant or certified quality management system is to elevate your company into a procedure based, continuous improving, methodical revenue generating and customer satisfying machine. Using QMS Software to Take the High Road To have your quality system serve this purpose, you have to have, and maintain, a living, breathing connection between your people and your procedures as the top priority of your documents. The ISO standard actually calls for this, but the historical enforcement of this aspect of the standard has been challenging. The easiest way to build a QMS that prioritizes connecting your procedures to your people, is to implement QMS software for an instant framework into which you can add free template procedures written for how the software controls a given activity, like qms document control software, and have an ISO consultant help you write what you are already doing that is unique to your company in a way that reveals how in most cases, you are already doing enough to meet the intent of a given ISO requirement. When something extra is needed to address an ISO requirement, a TLM consultant is also supported by the Total Lean Management (TLM) QMS Software development team, and has the ability to use your software to create an easy solution that addresses a particular gap in your ISO compliance with minimal impact or extra work needed. If your ISO consultant doesn’t share this philosophy and approach to building your QMS, you will be wasting your money, and likely adding even more unnecessary costs getting through your annual certification audits. Conclusion Taking the high road when implementing your quality management system, and making the connection between your people and your procedures the top priority will have a positive impact on all aspects of your company, as those procedures can now be used for training, error proofing, continuous improvement, employee retention, and it will contribute to global marketing value and reputation of being ISO certified or compliant, and that will help you win and retain new business.