Clause 4.1 of the ISO45001:2018 standard, Understanding the organisation and its context, can cause some trepidation, confusion, hand wringing and general bewilderment for people, I know when I first read it I thought WHAT THE!? but then I read it again (and again) and did some research and thought, actually I see what they are doing here, that's p...

Ask 10 experts about how to give feedback and you will get 10 different answers, simply because everyone is different. Giving feedback always seems to be a very tricky thing to get right. How often you do it, how you do it, where you do it and who you give the feedback to are all parts of the puzzle. Then factor in yourself, are you a conflict avoi...

Organisations struggle a bit in understanding what the context of the organisation is and why it matters. Think about it like this, how can you build a system to manage your organisational health and safety systems if you don't understand what the various pieces of the puzzle are? The aim of the context of the organisation which is clause 4 within ...

It seems every time you go the library, the bookshop or browse your favourite audiobook store there is another book in leadership (plus of course an untold number of blogs!). Each of these books and blogs promise a whole new spin on what you need to do to be a good or a great leader. Which approach should you take, which new theory or guru is the r...

The other week I was trying to arrange a catch up with our local Institute of Directors branch to talk about opportunities to do presentations at their meetings about ISO management systems and the benefit of ISO systems within organisations. With the aim of helping directors understand their part of the ISO environment. The response wasn't what I ...

February 2024 saw the release of the first amendment for ISO9001:2015 for Quality Management Systems. ISO releases amendments to standards when they want to add things to the standard that have already been agreed on, but they don't want to completely review the entire standard.  It's called the Climate Change Actions Amendment. What's been am...

When we talk with clients about achieving ISO14001 for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) the thing that seems to concern them most is getting to grips with two crucial elements: Aspects and Impacts. What are they, how do they interact with each other, and what are you supposed to do with that information. The good news is that these things are...

I overheard a conversation the other week at a between a couple of people who talking about lean. Naturally, my ears pricked up and I just hard to eavesdrop a little bit. They were making a list of their 'lean projects' they had completed already, which was quite a list. They were then going to set their sights on their next 'lean project' and how ...

When we first started helping organisations implement ISO45001:2018 for Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems we quickly realised that organisations were struggling to understand exactly what this standard was about. They were all focused on the day-to-day health & safety processes, accident/incident reporting, risk or in some cas...

The other day I saw a LinkedIn post on leadership, it was another of those “I'll just stick this image up and see what happens” posts, hoping that it would get a reaction and go 'viral', you have all seen them. It had an image saying, "if you want to make everyone happy, don't be a leader. Sell ice Cream". The quote has been attributed to many peop...

When you go see a movie or start bing watching your new favorite show you don't jump in a third of the way through because you know that the early stuff is just pointless, it doesn't add anything or skip the first 3 or 4 chapters of your book because, well the interesting stuff is always in the middle. That 1st part of any story is always the criti...

Here in sunny New Zealand, we are known for lots of things, beautiful landscapes, friendly people, the lord of the ring movies and of course the innovative spirit, that kiwi Number 8 wire approach, she'll be right. That innovative Number 8 wire approach I guess comes about because NZ is just so far away from most things, as a Scot, I also wonder ho...

People don't leave jobs they leave managers, it's a phrase you see across the internet and popping up on memes on social media and of course talks on youtube and TED. There are countless surveys out there that will tell you 57% of people or 78% of people or any number you, want leave a job because of their boss, and so it must be true, that's why p...

The amount of interest in ISO14001 and environmental certifications continues to grow all the time. In a wholly unscientific bit of analysis, we noticed that enquiries to us about helping companies either achieve certification for the 1st time or simplify how they manage their ISO14001 processes with Mango QHSE rose over 150% from 2022, that's pret...

An ISO standard for making Tea? Surely the world has just gone mad, bureaucracy is taking over, and it's just getting a little silly now, who needs a standard for making tea? Anyone can make tea; you bang on the kettle stick a tea bag in a cup and then pour in the hot water and then the milk… Well, hold on a minute, my gran would be incredulous wit...

When I hear about companies and their zero targets it makes me shudder, I feel sorry for the people involved in the organisation knowing that they can never succeed. It doesn't matter if you call it a target or a goal, zero means zero. According to the merriam-webster dictionary, Zero is "the absence of all magnitude and quantity", in other words i...

Productivity is a fickle thing, it can drive you to make some interesting and costly decisions in the name of getting more out of your process. Organisations the world over get sucked into the belief that to improve productivity, you have to open the wallet and spend the profits (or the overdraft) to become more productive. How much are you being b...

If you missed our webinar on how ro Muliply the power of yoru quality system with the amazing Tamela Serensits from Argolytics then you are in luck, we recorded it! The whole point of the webinar was to talk about how to drive business improvement and reduce costs by multiplying the power of your Quality systems. We wanted you to see how easy TREND...

Many organisations that decide to achieve ISO14001 for Environmental Management systems already have ISO9001:2015, which is great because the two systems are very closely aligned and follow the same Higher Level Structure, which creates a harmonised approach to your management systems. What this means then is that Clause 4 of ISO 14001 is going to ...

Throughout the whole AS9100D standard, risk-based thinking is an important thread. In clause 6.1 you are required to look at the risks (and opportunities) linked to the quality management system of the organisation, now AS9100D wants you to focus on even further. The whole point of the 5 points in clause 8.1.1 of AS9100 is to get you to understand ...

Every standard has a requirement that you understand and meet your legal, statutory, regulatory, or contractual obligations. Organisations should have a register to manage these things where you can list out what the requirement is and how you meet that requirement. It shouldn't need a standard to tell you need to meet your obligations, but for som...

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We've hit the final quarter of the calendar year, and now is probably a good time to talk about the very best place you can spend a bit of your time. Yes, you need to keep delivering for your clients and finding more and taking care of day-to-day business, but you also need to take a step back and get rid of some zombies! Every organisation has the...

According to Wikipedia, business continuity is defined as "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident" and the business continuity planning is the planning work that goes into the systems and processes you need to put in place to account for tho...

One of the challenges with quality management is building systems and processes that are simple enough for people to use, and want to use, but be robust enough to give you what you need to achieve. As I've talked about before, we spend a lot of time with clients helping them simplify their systems, people will use a simple system every day of the w...

If you think about the first 7 clauses of the AS9100 REV D as building the framework of your Quality Management System, then section 8 - Operation is very much about putting some substance on that framework and as a result it's quite in depth in its requirements. Section 8.1 - Operational Planning and Control, that we will discuss here, gives the r...

Beware the HiPPO! It sounds like something out of the latest blockbuster superhero or horror film doesn't it, a dire warning to the hero about the danger the HiPPO poses with the expectation that the hero, at some point, will have to face the HiPPO and survive. Encountering a HiPPO can range from being terrifying too hilarious to, well, depressing....

When we are talking to our clients about steps, they can be taking to improve their management system is stressing the need to capture any incidents that have occurred and improvements that they have made. Rather than thinking about these things as negatives because something was not right, and it created an incident or needed improvement, we help ...

Clause 7.5 - Documented Information within the AS9100 REV D standard highlights what is required when creating and controlling documentation that is required to support your Quality Management System for Aviation, Space, and Defence Organisations. The requirements for how you manage and control your documented information have changed since technol...

Like many of the ISO standards ISO27001 for information security management systems needs you to have a relationship with your supplier, that relationship of course should be one of mutual benefit and respect what Annex clause A15 does however set up the requirements for implementing some targets in terms of information security requirements.  ...

I always remember the 1st time I helped implement 5s into a factory. 5s (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise and Sustain) is one of the many 'tools' used by organisations when moving to taking lean thinking. The driving force was actually from the maintenance department at the time rather than operations, which still surprises some people. People still t...

For many organisations having any form of information security system is new, and that can make it a little challenging. It means that you are having to graft your new systems onto what you already have, which is tricky. However, there will come a point that the next system you need isn't one you had before you system, its new and so the very best ...

AS9100 clause 7.4 Communication is a small and innocuous clause, there really doesn't seem too much to it on the face of it. This clause in Rev D of the AS9100 standard for Aviation, Space and Defence organisation is all about ensuring that those within your organisation and outside of it get the right level of communication about your quality mana...

One of the great things that we see happening in the compliance world at the moment is an upsurge in the interest in gaining accreditation to ISO14001 for environmental management systems (EMS). There a lot of factors generating this interest from contractual requirements including the need for environmental sustainability or certification to busin...

While this annex clause of ISO27001 for Information security management systems (ISMS) is named Communication Security, think of it more as the security linked to how you move your information around both internally and externally of your organisation. The clause is split into two parts which really link to that internal & external thinking. A1...

I overheard a conversation in a café the other day between a few people sitting round a table in what I presume was an off site catch up for the management team. They were discussing some of the challenges that they were having and how tough things had been throughout the covid pandemic for them. They had managed to get through by being really cash...

Although AS9100 REV D requirements for your Quality Management System (QMS) is built on top of the ISO9001:2015 standard, there are a few areas where the requirements of the Aerospace standard are different or there are additional requirements, AS9100D Clause 7.3 for Awareness is one oof those areas.   Clause 7.3 - Awareness  This section...

Annex 12 – Operational Security for your ISO27001:2013 Information Security Management System (ISMS) is a pretty substantial clause since it's all about preventing the loss or availability, integrity and importantly confidentiality of your business information. By substantial we mean there are 14 separate elements for you to think about controls th...

If I knew then what I know now… The inference from that little phrase is that you would obviously make a different decision and so things would turn out better. Often however that's not the case, certainly not with people at work. We all hire people who aren't suited for the company, they aren't necessarily bad people, it's just they don't fit the ...

This Week's Question  This is a question that comes up a lot in discussions when we're implementing some lean with clients, "If we want to have a lean culture what is more important, respect for people or continuous improvement? Surely, they are both equally important? " The Feedback No! It's kind of chicken in the egg, so if you think about i...

Within the AS9100 REV D standard Competency (Clause 7.2) and Awareness(Clause 7.3) are split into 2 separate clauses, that makes sense if you look at competency as purely skill or knowledge based but you do have to ask if it is to have any Competency without Awareness (or Communication!). As an organisation it';s for you to decide how you manage it...

We split ISO27001 for Information Security Management Systems Annex Clause A11 into 2 parts to try and keep it a bit shorter but also to emphasis that you do need to think about both areas as two steps of the process. In Part 1 we talked about Annex Clause A11.1 – Secure Areas, here we'll talk about 11.2 Equipment. It's easy to just think of secure...

Over the years we have talked with many organisations about their mission, vision, and company values, about setting up objectives and people to do well and be aligned to those things and it's gone well. Yet, I've always through there was a bit missing in the puzzle. When we talk about values, we mean the real values your company has, not the buzzw...

This Week's Question  A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a few people around how things were going with their business in light of the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic and day to day business in general. One of the topics that came up was around contingency planning within the company and the various approaches they each had. In one ...

AS9100 REV D Standard Clause 7.1.6 – Organisational Knowledge can be a bit of a challenge for some to get their heads around. Organisations can have differing views internally about what organisational knowledge is, add in the external auditor's 3rd viewpoint and you can have some very interesting discussions about it. Getting clear about clear wha...

When people think about ISO27001 for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) they tend think about the world of cyberspace, of virtual set ups and protecting their information form someone on a PC hacking in from the other side of the world. That's certainly a part of it and in reality, a small part of it. Your real-world threats are just as...

AS9100 REV D Section 7.1.5 is all about the how you look after measuring devices, calibration and measurement traceability. It's not a massive change from the previous standard but what does it mean and what do you have to do? The Clause is essentially the same as the ISO9001:2015 clause it is based on but does carry some useful additional clarific...

We put the call out to our Newsletter readers, on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for questions. Questions that people are struggling with around ISO, Lean or leadership that they wanted help with and we got some fantastic responses that we have loved reading through and thinking about how we can help. We can't answer everything but we'll do our bes...

When you first think about cryptography and it's uses, it's not hard to just to the realms of James Bond and secret codes that unlock the secrets of organisations and the nation, why would you need to care about it? The answer is simple really, in today's cloud computing environment for example cryptography appears everywhere, in secure computer sy...

We put the call out to our Newsletter readers, on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for questions. Questions that people are struggling with around ISO, Lean or leadership that they wanted help with and we got some fantastic responses that we have loved reading through and thinking about how we can help. We can't answer everything but we'll do our bes...