We are doing some rework of web page content here at Bizmanualz. One thing we try to be consciously aware of is not filling our web pages with “we.”

We all like to talk about ourselves, even in business contexts, like how much expertise and experience we have. And we like to talk about our product’s great features.

But that is not usually the main thing customers want to know. What they really want to know is how it helps them. So whether you are writing web pages, product brochures, or sales sheets, minimize talking about yourself. Plus, when you talk about your product, focus more on how the product will benefit the reader and less on the technical features of the product.

For example, if you produce a cordless drill, it may be appropriate to mention that you have been manufacturing drills for 50 years, but it should not be the primary focus. Also, telling potential customers the drill has a 24 volt nickel-cadmium battery and a titanium case may be great, but it would probably be more meaningful if you tell them it will hold a charge for eight hours of drilling and stand up to the roughest use.

Experienced sales copy writers seem to agree. It is okay to tell customers about yourself and to list product features. But first tell them exactly how these things will benefit them.

Information is important.  It helps us do our job.  But in how many places does information need to be kept?  We need to make sure the right information is available to people when they need it, but sometimes we put information in too many places – where it is not really necessary and not really used.  We just do it because it seems like a good idea at the time, or it makes things look official, or because we are just over-doing it.

When information is dynamic, you need to consolidate it as much as possible, because if the information is unnecessarily duplicated in a number of places, then every time it changes you have to locate everywhere the information exists and update it.  This leads to oversights and errors,  which then leads to outdated or incorrect information floating around.

We encountered this recently on some of our document lists that included revision level and revision date.  We use these lists for document control.  For example, we have a list of work instructions in the master work instruction file, so that when a work instruction is updated, we know where “deployed” copies of the work instructions are kept so they can be replaced with the latest revision.

And we like to have living documents, meaning we update them frequently.  But every time, say, a work instruction is updated, the list had to be updated too.   Sometimes it wasn’t.  So now the list had wrong information.

But the point is that it was unnecessary to have revision information on the list.  We do not use the list to track revisions, we use it to track location (which rarely changed).  Why have revision information there?   It is an unnecessary duplication of information.

We took the revision information off, and made updating work instructions (and other documents) easier because there is less overhead activity associated with it.  And less wrong information floating around.

I recently overheard a discussion about the position of ISO Management Representative described in Clause 5.5.2 of the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS) Requirements where someone was questioning whether the ISO Management Representative really needed to have the title “manager.”

I think we can take the words of the standard itself – “appoint a member of the organization’s management” – to indicate that it does need to be someone with at least the title of manager.

But we can also use our own common sense and organizational experience to understand the reasoning behind this ISO 9001 requirement, even though it is not explicitly stated.

First of all, the person responsible for managing the ISO QMS needs to have a fairly high level of authority in an organization. They need to be able to make decisions, apply resources, and implement changes in the organization related to the QMS without having to seek permission or feel that they are overstepping their authority. The QMS touches many disparate facets of an organization.Someone in a low position of authority will not be able to effectively implement and manage the QMS.

Secondly, the ISO Management Representative needs to be someone in a secure position in the organization who feels they can tell the truth to top management. That usually means someone at, or near, the top management level. Someone lower in the organization is usually not comfortable telling the truth to top management (for whatever reason, fear, intimidation, feeling out of place).  An ISO QMS that does not have open communication to top management about its functionality and effectiveness will not truly benefit the organization.

Finally, if top management is not willing to use someone with real authority or power in an organization as its ISO Mgt. Rep., what does that say about their commitment to the QMS? In my opinion, the ISO Management Representative needs to be a least a manager, and in larger, multi-tiered organizations it may need to be someone even higher in the organizaiton.

In essence, according to my dictionary, the terms are interchangeable.  I have heard some explanations that continuous implies not interrupted while continual implies prolonged succession.   Merriam-Webster on-line makes that distinction as well, using the example of showers over the weekend.  Continuous showers means the rain will never stop.  Continual showers means that the rain will start and stop regularly over the weekend.

So continual seems to be the term that is most appropriate when it comes to organization’s improving.  Improvement typically happens in spurts or stops and starts;  improvement doesn’t constantly happen without interruption.

More importantly, however, continual is the appropriate term  for organizations employing the ISO  9001 QMS.  The ISO 9001 Standard always uses the term “continual improvement,” so that is the term I have come into the habit of using just to be consistent with the language in the standard.

It is interesting, though, that continual improvement has the more appropriate implication and is used in the ISO 9001 Standard, yet continuous improvement has become the more frequently used term.

Now you know why I prefer continual improvement.  Which do you use?  Should we continue to use them interchangeably, or recognize the subtle differences?

The ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS) Requirements is a general set of requirements that can be applied to any organization – regardless of size, industry, or business model.  Of course, anytime you try to apply a generic set of standards to a very particular organization, some things just won’t apply.

That is where exclusions come in.  At some point during your journey of creating a compliant ISO 9001 QMS, you should become familiar enough with the ISO 9001 Requirments and  familiar enough with your organization’s implementatioin to know what clauses of the standard simply aren’t applicable.

It is a common issue when organization’s undergo their first compliance audit.  They have failed to properly identify exclusions.  Besides over-documenting, trying to comply with standards that simply don’t fit your organization is a major source of frustration in developing an ISO 9001 QMS.

Any requirment that doesn’t fit your organization should have an exclusion listed and justifed (explained) in the Quality Manual.  You don’t have any customer property?  Exclude Clause 7.5.4.  No measuements need to be made to ensure product/service conformity?  Exclude Clause 7.6.

Properly recognizing and justifying exclusions can significantly smooth the path to ISO 9001 certification.

Every day your business handles multiple cash transactions. They may be just few or they may number in the hundreds. Either way, if you don’t have a cash policy or procedure in place to ensure that cash flows into and out of the right places, what is protecting your bottom line?

In this article, we examine all the reasons having firm cash policy in place benefits your company, from providing necessary internal controls to preventing fraud and abuse.

How safe is your cash flow?

Read more to find out how you can protect your company…