Keeping with the Spirit of ISO 9001
| by Don Reed | ||||
Sometimes when I say that phrase, “keeping with the spirit of the ISO 9001 standard,” I get long looks and contradictory comments. After all, as we all know, with ISO 9001 auditing it’s all about specific criteria and objective evidence. That does not align very well with the concept of the spirit of the standard, only the letter of the standard.
But consider this. I have a friend who is an environmental engineer. He complains that the most difficult aspect of his job is complying with long, tedious, arcane, and sometimes contradictory EPA regulations. I sympathize with his difficulty; however, his mistake is to blame the extensive regulations on the EPA. I argue that environmental regulations are so long and complex because every time a business and corporation exploits a loophole or missing detail, the regulation has to be revised to close the gap. Do this for 50 years and obviously you end up with long, complex, and even contradictory regulations.
So, in my view, he shouldn’t blame the EPA for overly complex regulations; he should blame businesses, corporations, and environmental engineers who, instead of following the spirit of environmental regulations, sought to avoid compliance by exploiting loopholes, unspecific language, and missing details that have lead to this bureaucratic nightmare.
When it comes to the ISO 9001 requirements, the standard is brief and generic. It is not full of details on what you have to do to comply. This makes the standard very flexible so any type or size of organization can use it. I feel this general nature of the standard makes it appropriate to talk about the “spirit” of the standard—the spirit of using a continually improving process approach to improve effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
In order to keep the standard brief and general, then organizations employing it (and auditors as well) have to keep in mind the spirit of improvement behind the standard and adhere to that, not only the literal letter of the standard. After all, who wants to end up with an ISO Standard as difficult to navigate as EPA regulations?
Categories:
ISO Quality Standards
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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Keeping with the Spirit of ISO 9001. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com
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