Douglas A Taylor and Associates Limited
PO Box 15 Laidlaw Avenue Washago ON L0K 2B0
Phone/fax 705.689.2445
Email:
doug.taylor000@sympatico.ca
ISO 9002 Update
Last updated January 29, 2002
ISO
Toolbox Growing in Popularity!!
By 2002 there are nearly 70 CWPCA/ACMPC & NWPCA member companies
implementing the process, nearing completion or continuous in the pursuit to
complete this quality management program.
The NWPCA and CWPCA/ACMPC have hosted meetings promoting
the use of the CWPCA/ACMPC ISO 9002 TOOLBOX. The Directors, in an agreement with
the NWPCA, will allow US companies to make use of the "ISO 9002
TOOLBOX" which was developed by the CWPCA/ACMPC. This program has proven
its' worth to all who have implemented it and will continue to service these
companies for many years.
The associations are not committed to any auditing
consulting company and suggest that every purchaser contract their own auditing
company.
Registration Audit
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1-9 Employees
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$
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10-19
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$
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20-29
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$
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30-49
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$
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Annual Surveillance Audit
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1-9 Employees
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$
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10-19
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$
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20-29
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$
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30-49
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$
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The Payoff to ISO Registration
by Sandy Grauer, The Shur-Way Group
ISO Registration: it’s a daunting undertaking. A year ago we needed to made a
decision regarding ISO certification. We wished there were other small business
owners of whom we could ask questions. We weren’t sure it was right for our
business, although because of customer demand it seemed we had little choice
but to become certified. The thing of which we were most afraid was ending up
with our business governed by a bureaucracy. The entrepreneurial spirit and
bureaucracy don’t exactly go hand in hand. Regardless of unanswered questions,
however, we joined ten other pallet companies and began the implementation
process working with Profile Consulting. A year later many of the companies in
that first group are very close to being formally audited. I recently had the
opportunity to speak with the owners or managers of these companies and ask
them what they thought of ISO certification now. Amazingly, given the variety
of companies in the group, the benefits we all were realizing are very similar.
Aside from the obvious advantage of meeting customer requirements, many of us
in the group found ISO to be a very useful tool for improving our organization.
The ISO 9002 Standard is made up of twenty areas to which any person in
business naturally pays attention. Registration to the standard requires
documentation and evidence that these twenty aspects of business, many of them
interrelated, are addressed. We found that documenting our processes and
systems afforded us an opportunity to analyze them, make improvements and
streamline. Meeting the requirements of the standard can, if handled correctly,
provide a solid foundation to operating a business and a well-run business is
much more likely to prosper. Summarized here are some of the payoffs to ISO
9002:
Performance: Examining and streamlining the systems that make your
business work is like fine-tuning a sports car to achieve more performance. Use
a car, but ignore the systems that makes it work and it’ll continue to run, but
not well and not for long. Your business is made up of many different
components: the customers, the product, the people, the equipment, etc. Each
are important. Optimizing and integrating the systems that govern the
components means the opportunity to maximize their performance. Good
performance results in good returns.
Reduce Mistakes:
Perhaps, like us, you’ve caught mistakes just as product is being loaded on the
truck to be delivered to customers. Perhaps, like us, there has even been
occasion where the customer has caught the mistake, whether in product or
delivery. Mistakes cost businesses in time, labour, and damage to the
relationship with the customer. Effective systems in place mean the chances of
making an error are greatly reduced. The ISO standard also incorporates the
opportunity to examine errors and, when warranted, improve processes so they’re
not repeated. Reduced or eliminated mistakes means improved profits.
Open Doors:
The most obvious benefit to certification is marketing. Suppliers to the
automotive industry, and increasingly other industries, are required to have
ISO certification. As more and more companies are certified the demand for
certification will grow. Being able to address that concern immediately, opens
the door to more dialogue with potential customers. More dialogue means the
opportunity of making the sale is more likely. More sales means your company
grows.
Freedom from Transitional Worry:
Every businessperson depends on key people in their organization. Their
experience and knowledge of the job are invaluable to peace of mind. In the
past, just imagining that person leaving, for whatever reason, was enough to
cause sleepless nights thinking about the painful transition time. Having
solid, documented procedures in place for each aspect of your business means
that if a key person in your organization leaves, you can be confident that
although you’ve suffered a loss, business will carry on effectively and
efficiently. Meeting or exceeding customer requirements, regardless of the
circumstances, keeps your business alive, and that is money in your pocket.
Improved Communication:
Meeting the ISO standard means customer requirements will be clearly and
consistently communicated. What is sold by the salesperson will be hat the
plant will produce each and every time, because of the systems you have
implemented. Every person in your organization will be operating off the same
page and will be held accountable to producing a quality product. The ability
to produce quality on a routine basis is what customers want from suppliers.
It’s what business owners want from their employees. Good communication is
vital to good business.
Teamwork:
We have found the training, clear communication, and documented procedures put
in place to meet ISO requirements takes the burden of running a smooth and
efficient business from the few and spreads it throughout the organization. We
are all accountable to doing our job the way we’ve decided it should be done
regardless of whether we cut lumber, drive a forklift, manage a plant, take a
customer order, or make a sale. Each person is important and each of us is part
of the team that makes our business prosper.
CWPCA Initiative Can Provide Many Benefits
reprinted from Pallet Enterprise magazine, March 1998
By Rick LeBlanc
Bethel Saw Mill Co., a manufacturer of new, recycler and producer of industrial
dunnage products based in Port Cochrane, Ontario, provides pallets to Tier 2
auto industry companies, a segment where participation in quality certification
programs is in increased demand.
Bethel’s decision to earn registration in the ISO 9000 quality certification
program came in no small part from listening to customers like Tier 2
automotive suppliers.
"The decision to introduce an ISO program has a lot to do with the
customers you serve," observed Bethel plant manager, Tom Russell. "In
order to participate in some markets, you must have a quality system."
Bethel already had a quality program in place, but company president Luc
Gauthier recognized the potential benefit that an ISO program would add and
supported the effort from the start. "Endorsement by senior management is
critical for an ISO program," said Russell. "It has to be driven by
the top or it won’t succeed."
The results have been very promising. Aside from meeting demand from customers
for ISO certification, another pleasing outcome has been that Bethel has
improved product quality and reduced costs. While quality control was
satisfactory before, quality-related complaints have dropped to zero, said
Russell.
The company also has been able to solicit new accounts. According to Russell, a
customer who had just been certified asked to see the pallet company’s ISO
manual. At the time Bethel had not yet been certified, but it won the business
based on the strength of the manual it had put together. Nancy Callaghan,
director of external training and KPMG Quality Registrar, said that another key
benefit of ISO certification is the potential for improving staff motivation
and involvement. The ISO implementation process can result in greater awareness
of quality by employees, increasing their motivation and pride in their jobs,
she said.
"Our goal was to do it right rather than just going through the
motions," recalled Russell. "We went through a process of developing
our own forms and manuals." In Bethel’s case, the development of the
program was done totally in-house.
One of the biggest challenges was training. Rather than forcing the program on
employees, management worked at selling the benefits of ISO certification to
them. This approach was clearly successful. The pallet plant qualified for
certification after only a one-day inspection by the auditor, QMI, a North
American leader in ISO certification.
For pallet companies that want to jump-start the ISO process, there is a new
program available that can help simplify the process – the ISO
"toolbox." The program was developed by internationally known Profile
Consulting Group at the request of Gordon Hughes, executive general manager of
the Canadian Wood Pallet and Container Association.
"Gord first approached us about the possibility of developing a program
last February (1997)," said consultant Doug Taylor of Profile. Profile,
which already had developed similar programs for other industries and
professions such as cancer treatment and technical services, began to work with
the pallet industry. Taylor spoke to a regional CWPCA/ACMPC meeting in April
and to the annual meeting in July.
Acceptance of the program came quickly, especially in central Canada, where the
automotive industry has been very interested in the ISO certification of its
suppliers. "The demand for ISO has rippled out from Ontario," Taylor
said.
Profile Consulting Group reached an agreement with CWPCA/ACMPC whereby an
initial group of companies would wok towards registration with the help of the
consultant while the "toolbox" was being developed. Subsequent phases
would allow companies to enter the program using the "toolbox"
approach.
Eleven pallet companies signed up for the first round of implementation and
eight for the second. All were based in Ontario. Members of the initial group
completed the registration process in February, and others are expected to
achieve registration over the next few months. The second group started in
December with completion likely to finish by August. A group of Western
Canadian CWPCA/ACMPC members has expressed interest in the program and may
participate beginning in March or April.
"It is an effort of the associations to bring stronger management skills
to an industry where things have often been done informally in the past,"
observed Taylor. "We have raised the bar and shown that this industry is
very serious about quality."
The "toolbox" is written specifically for the pallet and container
industry, Taylor said, in plain, easy-to-understand language. It has been
refined with the help of a full range of companies involved in new and recycled
pallet production, containers, reels, boxes, waste disposal and services. Model
documents for policies, procedures and forms are included to give participating
companies a visual target to work toward.
Unlike some off-the-self programs, the "toolbox" procedures are based
on what companies in the pallet and container business actually do. It requires
relatively little adaptation to come up with a complete system, whereas a
generic program might require extensive modification to be meaningful.
The ISO "toolbox" now is available through the CWPCA/ACMPC and the
National Wooden Pallet and Container Association.
For information about the ISO "toolbox," contact Doug Taylor at
705-689-2445
or e-mail doug.taylor000@sympatico.ca
|
CWPCA/ACMPC |
tel: 905 426-7196
fax 905-426-5012 toll free
1-877-224-3555 |
|
NWPCA |
tel: 703 527-7667 fax
703-519-4720 |
