Question of the month:  Does complying with the ISO 9001 Standard have to be a “document nightmare?”

The old adage frequently applied to ISO 9001 is “Say what you do and do what you say.”  Some organizations seem to take this to mean “Write down everything you do,” but that is really not required by the standard.  The actual requirement is that processes are well-defined and responsibilities clearly communicated.  This can be accomplished through a lot of methods that require little documentation, such as training. 

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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?

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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 but little real value?

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Lean ISO 9001? To many of you this will seem like a contradiction in terms. The term Lean and ISO 9001 are not generally used together, but why not? Does a Quality Management System (QMS) have to be complicated and cumbersome?

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Recently we published a series of articles covering why you need policies and procedures, and it included how to decide when you need to create procedures. Now that you understand why you need procedures, let’s talk about how to write procedures.

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What does it cost to call one prospect? How many times must you call that prospect until the timing is right and he has a need for your product or service? Assuming that you get lucky and call him when he has a need, why should he listen to you? Wouldn’t it be great if prospects called you when they were ready to consider buying?

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Last week we discussed using visual stories to convey your message. But even when you have a message, how will your prospects find you?

One way that business people find goods and services is to search the web. It’s up to you to optimize your site to make it easy for search engines to serve up your site when prospects go searching.

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Last week’s article talked about crafting marketing message from your customers’ perspectives. This week we will discuss how a simple visual story can simplify a message complicated with symbols and shapes.

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BizManualz’s readers have seen how Lean and other business improvement methods can help increase your production of goods and services without increasing spending. But translating that into revenue means you need more sales. And sales start with leads. Where will new leads come from?

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What a year this was. A new policies and procedures manual. New training courses. And, most importantly, over 50 articles on various aspects of business management and process improvement. Our goal here at Bizmanualz is to help you streamline your processes and improve your business performance. If our articles help you achieve this in any way, we feel like we have succeeded.

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