Archive for November, 2010


    21st century Quality: Part 10 – Corrective Action, Preventive Action and Continual Improvement

    By on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 | Comments Off

    Corrective / Preventive action.  How many times have we seen processes, procedures, even standards for that matter with this combination of words?  There may have been a time when this combination made sense but not anymore.  Let me present an argument for Corrective Action and Preventive Action / Continual Improvement.

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    21st Century Quality: Part 9 – Internal Audit

    By on Friday, November 19th, 2010 | Comments Off

    Why do almost all ISO 9001, TS 16949, AS 9100 etc. based quality management systems have the same internal audit process even though in any real sense, they don’t work?  They don’t work simply because no one sees any value in them and the reason that they believe this is because there really is no [...]

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    21st Century Quality Part 8 – Internal Quality Laboratory

    By on Friday, November 12th, 2010 | Comments Off

    Many organizations have internal quality assurance, equipment calibration or testing functions.  Most of these departments or functions provide their services directly to the other departments of the organization and do not sell their services outside the organization.  Because there is no external demand for service, the processes and procedures of these functions often fall short [...]

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    21st Century Quality Part 7 – Contingency Planning

    By on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 | Comments Off

    The TS 16949 quality management system requirement for the automotive industry requires organizations to have contingency plans.  It does not specifically require a contingency planning process which I believe is a significant oversight.  In most organizations contingency plans consist of predetermined planned activities to address the specific issues identified in the standard (utility interruptions, labor [...]

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    21st Century Quality Part 6: Actual and Potential Field Failures

    By on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 | Comments Off

    In the TS 16949 standard there is a requirement to control actual and potential field failures.  As can be found in a number of quality standard requirements there are some weird and wonderful interpretations of this requirement.  The explanation provided to TS auditors by the IATF is clear, logical and applicable not only to automotive [...]

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    • TS 16949 PROCESS AUDITING GUIDEBOOK/ KINDLE VERSION

      A GUIDE FOR AUDITORS WHO WANT TO PROVIDE THOROUGH, EFFECTIVE AND VALUE ADDING AUDITS

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