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Subject:Re[2]: We All Get Third Party Books / quality From:Iain Harrison <iharrison -at- SCT -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Wed, 6 Nov 1996 17:07:57 GMT
At present I don't produce ISO 9000 documentation at all, but my
wife does. She is a quality manager/consultant (depending on the
contract).
There is no suggestion that what she produces isn't high quality
(I wouldn't dare!) but it isn't always concise.
The level of detail required in some work instructions is
designed to be fully explicit, and is therefore too detailed to
be of really effective use to an experienced user.
I'm afraid that it is all too often that the hoops a company has
to jump through to pass BS 5750 / ISO 9000 (they are pretty much
identical) accreditation do not in themselves improve the
quality of their product. ISO 9000 is not a quality standard. It
is a standard for systems that measure and ensure quality.
There are plenty of instances I could cite (but won't) where
quality deteriorated noticeably following implementation of
ISO9000. Generally, this is because the company had a proper
commitment to quality, which was partly diverted to get all the
paperwork in order.
Generally, quality standards recover once the system is properly
in place, but not always, I fear.
This may not be music to the ears of proponents of ISO 9000, but
I'm afraid it is the result of experience. We've had BS5750 here
in the UK for long enough to know the ups and downs of getting
the standard.
Iain
______________________________ Reply Separator _________
Subject: Re: We All Get Third Party Books
Author: robert -dot- morrisette -at- Ebay -dot- Sun -dot- COM (Bob Morrisette) at
internet
Date: 6/11/96 16:31
Deleted all but this
>The users will find that level of detail gets in the way of
>using the documentation, rather than helping it, but the
>customer is the company management, who may consider that
>getting ISO9000/BS5750 has be a higher priority than having
>clear, concise user documentation.
I'm wondering about the implication that documentation for
ISO 9000 organizations is not clear, concise user documentation.
If you do not produce high-quality documentation in an ISO
environment, you are doing something wrong.
Bob Morrisette
writer -at- sabu -dot- EBay -dot- sun -dot- com
