You’ve written a new procedure.  Your procedure review identified completeness, correctness, and subject matter applicability.  You feel you’ve caught your procedure writing errors and the procedure’s ready to go…but go where?  How do you determine if your new procedure is working?

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Lean Visual Management System cuts through the paperwork typical of ISO 9001:2008 quality certifications.

St. Louis, MO (April 24, 2009) - Bizmanualz, Inc., a business strategy consulting and quality publishing company based in Clayton, Missouri, today announced the successful certification to ISO 9001:2008 for the design, development, realization, and delivery of its policy and procedure publications, training courses, and consulting services.  The certification demonstrates the Bizmanualz commitment to continually improve its ability to assist business owners achieve the growth they envision.  (more…)

Implementing a Quality Management System (QMS) that complies with ISO 9001 requirements can be challenging.  That’s why a useful approach may be to implement the QMS in phases, where you focus on different elements of meeting the ISO 9001 Standard in progressive stages.  (more…)

In this series of articles we are discussing implementing an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) in four distinct phases.� By breaking the implementation into stages, it becomes more manageable and less overwhelming.� In phase one, the general requirements described in Clause 4 of ISO 9001 QMS requirements are implemented, and in phase two the elements of continual improvement from Clause 8 are set in place and practiced.

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If your goal is ISO certification, the best method is to create a compliant QMS in stages. (more…)

Interactive learning style helps students become familiar with using the ISO 9001 Standard as criteria for auditing, the importance of an audit program along with basic auditing principles.

St. Louis, MO - February 27, 2009 - Bizmanualz, Inc., a business publications, training and consulting company based in St. Louis, MO, today announced the launch of a completely redesigned version of its ISO 9001 QMS Internal Auditor Training course.  This ISO training course demonstrates requisite auditing skills to beginning auditors, and is also valuable to experienced auditors and quality managers looking for a refresher course or the opportunity to discuss innovative approaches. (more…)

We all hope our co-workers and employees are honest, and they probably are.  Yet, improper cash control and poor cash practices can tempt people who are basically honest.  Think about parking at the local mall.  You always roll up your windows and lock your car to protect your possessions, especially if you made some purchases at an earlier stop.  Most of the people who walk by your car at the mall are honest, yet you don’t want to tempt them by making it easy to take something that doesn’t belong to them.

Cash Security Is About Prevention

The same idea applies to your cash process; you want to use best cash practices and follow proper cash procedures.  In business you can reduce cash risk with good cash controls through removing opportunity and temptation.  While your employees may be honest, sloppy cash control is like leaving your car windows down at the mall… you are just begging for something bad to happen. (more…)

When you hear the phrase “internal control system required by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404,” do you automatically think of policies and procedures?  Simply having accounting policies and procedures does not indicate an internal control system.  Well-written accounting procedures that document well-defined accounting processes, however, are an important component of the internal control system you are building.  (more…)

In the two previous articles of this series we discussed two important aspects of a Lean ISO 9001 Quality Management System: a Lean Quality Manual and Lean Quality Management System (QMS) Procedures. But what about other documentation that may be needed? (more…)

In last week’s article I attempted to convince you of the value and sense of a Lean Quality Manual. But, how useful is a Lean Quality Manual if the Quality Management System (QMS) procedures are burdensome books with tons of detail and little value? (more…)