Off the Shelf Systems

Off the shelf systems will always be a part of our industry and I guess they do have their place in some ways. The problem with an off the shelf system is that the majority of the time, it ends up right back on the shelf gathering dust.

By off the shelf system I mean a system that has already been implemented elsewhere and just basically has a different business name slapped on it. Majority of the time the documentation will meet the requirements of the standard but when you audit it, the processes don't reflect the business at all or there are massive gaps.

These systems will only work if you use it purely as a guide. Have a look at what someone else has done to see what kind of information has been included and then re-write the whole thing.

Systems are only beneficial when they accurately describe YOUR business processes, not someone elses.

Using Sustainability to Improve Bottom Line

I just read this article and thought it was worth sharing

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Implementing an effective Environmental Management System can help the bottom line IF Management really drives it.

Safety Risk Assessments

I have been harping on about the new Workplace Health and Safety laws lately but I believe it is hugely important. Workers should always go home just as happy and healthy as when they came to work. If they come to work unhealthy and grumpy then that's their problem. 

Work Safe Australia has put out a number of draft codes of practice that are really informative and should definitely be read by anyone with a duty of care to employees and workers.

I've provided this one today as it's a good starting point. It's the new draft code of practice for Managing and Assessing Risk. Click the link for the PDF version

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Supplier Evaluation

Whether you are building a certified system or not it pays to perform an evaluation of your suppliers at least annually at a minimum.

Depending on what service they provide you, there may be critical information that they need to supply you on a regular basis that might be overlooked otherwise. For example if a supplier requires licenses, certifications etc to be able to perform work, you should know that they are current and applicable.

By ensuring that your suppliers have up to date public liability insurances and Workcover certificates of currency,  you help lower your risk if something happens. Professional Indemnity Insurance also gets overlooked. We pay quite a lot each year to make sure that we are insured for professional indemnity and yet no one ever asks us for a copy of our policy.

Develop a checklist of critical information and send it out to your suppliers. Keep the information on a spreadsheet and put any expiration dates into your calendar so that you can chase it up when the time comes

External Audits

Evening all. Apologies for the for the large delay since my last post, been quite a hectic few days as we are looking at purchasing another consulting business.

I had an external audit today and I have to say being audited is probably the least enjoyable part of my job. On a positive note though if you get a good auditor it can be a little less stressful. If you get a non-conformance of any sort it's not the end of the world. Generally it will just mean that you have to undertake a corrective action and show evidence that it has been fixed.

I think there is a lot of pressure on people to go through audits without any form of corrective action arising from it. There really shouldn't be. Corrective actions help you to learn and improve your systems. 

If you believe that the non-conformance is unjustified though remember that you can disagree with your auditor. Some auditors interpret the standard differently, you just need to explain your interpretation and back it up with evidence.

If you have any issues or questions from an audit please feel free to contact me.

The Importance of Compliance

The number of people I speak to in day to day travels and in social settings that either run a business or own a business and are unaware of the importance of compliance is a little scary.

I use the term compliance in terms of regulatory compliance, in other words what laws and regulations businesses have to adhere to. Just because you don't have a certified Safety, Quality or Environmental Management System doesn't mean you don't need to regularly assess your compliance.

If you are reading this and you are in a position of seniority, ask yourself a few basic questions.

1. Am I aware of ALL regulations that are applicable to my business?
2. How do I stay up to date if a regulation changes?
3. When was the last time we assessed our compliance with current regulations? 
4. Do I know the penalties that apply to me individually for con-compliance?

You have to remember that when it comes to being a business owner or Senior Manager, there are laws that if not followed and lead to death of a worker or other catasrophes, you personally may be fined or imprisoned on top of fines for the business.


It doesn't take long to get yourself up to speed and there are many wonderful people out there like myself to assist you.

Continuous vs Continual Improvement

Whoever decided that the term "Continual Improvement" should be part of the ISO9001 standard probably didn't realise the drama that it would cause. If they did they probably would have chosen a different term. 

The difference between the two is that continual occurs over a long period of time but with intervals of interruptions where as continuous occurs over a long period of time uninterrupted.

It is due to this "same same but different" issue that many people building a system for the first time will use the terms interchangeably. Just like people use the terms "certification" and "accreditation" interchangeably. 

At the end of the day, if you just use "continual" you won't have any issues. In my early days building systems I was given a corrective action for using the word continuous instead of continual in a quality policy. As far as I am concerned that is just a prime example of an auditor being a jerk as opposed to a genuine fault in the system requiring in depth root cause analysis. In this case my root cause analysis determined that my highschool English teacher failed to cover the complexities of continual vs continuous. My corrective action could only be to go back to highschool and do English all over again.

I bet I'm not the only one that has had grief over these words.