For those that are “in the know”...

My best friend owns/operates a company that manufactures steel plating for use in the pipeline industry. In a former company (in which I was not involved) he was certified under ISO 9001-2008. He asked me this week if I wanted to develop the certification for his company under the current ISO 9001-2015.

Having no idea what this entails, can y’all give me some guidance on where/how to start this process and any pitfalls that may arise in getting the certification created and approved.

Thanks for any and all assistance!!

We hired a contractor company (for $3-$5K) to help us through the process, from start to finish, including certification.

Even then it was nearly a full time effort for 3-4 of us for 4-6 weeks to take some templates, make them our own, etc. Lots of documentation, self licking ice cream cone processes, meetings, internal interviews / assessments, and we aren't in manufacturing, just a Mark 1 mod 0 small government contractor providing services.

You have to start in advance of getting certified (ie, you need to show how you are operating under ISO before they will certify you as compliant) - I think it's like 90 days or more of operating under your process before they will look at you for certification.

It would take a pretty large paycheck for me to lead an effort like that (I assisted with ours because I have too much other stuff to do) for something as big as a manufacturing company.

My friend Steve has done this for years. I sent you an email with his phone number. He will fill you in Tell him George N from Grand Blanc sent you.

1.If not required, don't.
1a. It can be a positive, but get info & evaluate honestly before shelling out any $. It can be done for free (self certify), you just wont be able to hang the banner.
2. If required, get someone in to do it & don't pay by the page or hour

In my experience, well run companies do most of it naturally & poorly run companies won't do it right.

quote:

Originally posted by greco:
My friend Steve has done this for years. I sent you an email with his phone number. He will fill you in Tell him George N from Grand Blanc sent you.

Got the email...thanks greco!!

The company I retired from required that all of its divisions become ISO certified as it was the "thing" to do. I disagreed the entire time, and even after certification felt it was a worthless certification. I can't recall a single time it made my division one red cent, while contrarily wasting thousands of man hours doing paperwork and holding meetings.

But then again, I was never the cheerleading type that the company was evolving into. When it was clear I was to shake my pom poms, I announced my retirement.

Best thing I ever did.

So, hell no, I wouldn't want to help someone become certified.

I do appreciate the anti-ISO comments. However, my bud is a sole proprietor and has determined that when working with "Big Oil", being ISO 9001-2015 Certified puts him on top of the pecking order for "Big Oil's" vendor list, as this is one of their questions when "applying" to perform services and produce goods for their field applications.

I get where y'all are coming from, but when he did the ISO 9001-2008 Certification at his former company, it seemed pretty streamlined and was a non-issue after the audit. He says the -2015 Certification isn't as cumbersome as the -2008. We'll see...

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I do appreciate the anti-ISO comments. However, my bud is a sole proprietor and has determined that when working with "Big Oil", being ISO 9001-2015 Certified puts him on top of the pecking order for "Big Oil's" vendor list, as this is one of their questions when "applying" to perform services and produce goods for their field applications.

I get where y'all are coming from, but when he did the ISO 9001-2008 Certification at his former company, it seemed pretty streamlined and was a non-issue after the audit. He says the -2015 Certification isn't as cumbersome as the -2008. We'll see...

Went through ISO 9001 certification sometime in the 90s (I left that company in ‘97). It was not particularly useful, but that may have been because it was run by manglers who didn’t really know what we did and they were trying to tell engineers what to do (always a recipe for frustration... herding cats would be relaxing by comparison).

As I understood it the goal was to actually have well documented procedures for what you do and to show through the audit that the folks there actually do refer to and follow the procedures.

From the Birdseye view, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all. As long as you can make it about documenting what you actually do, it may even be beneficial. That wasn’t the experience we had, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

As far as getting personally involved in certification of your friends company, I’d want to know a lot about how they work and what the general attitude to certification is. If you can get buy in from the folks doing the work it might be fun and interesting for you (great chance to learn more about their business) and useful for them. If you are left writing something up and then trying to get them to fake it through the audit, that might not be so much fun for you or useful for them.

Documented procedures that reflect reality can be really useful in training new folks and cross training existing employees.

To me ISO 9001-2015 is a case of creating the cure, then inventing the disease, so you can sell more of the cure.

Good luck!

I've seen companies (e.g., gun manufacturers) advertise their facilities as ISO 9001 certified. As a consumer, what should it mean to me, and why should I care about it?

I don't think that "advertisement" is necessarily for the end-user, the customer. I believe that is more for the vendor to whom they sell and the manufacturer from whom they by parts. That's the thing...my bud's vendors, being in the gas/oil/any kind of pipeline industry, are HIGHLY regulated by every .gov agency out there. Consequently, it matters to those big companies that he is ISO compliant.

Me filling up my car at the pump? Couldn't care less, but it DOES matter to the likes of Exxon, Chevron, whoever makes the gas, et. al.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I do appreciate the anti-ISO comments. However, my bud is a sole proprietor and has determined that when working with "Big Oil", being ISO 9001-2015 Certified puts him on top of the pecking order for "Big Oil's" vendor list, as this is one of their questions when "applying" to perform services and produce goods for their field applications.

I get where y'all are coming from, but when he did the ISO 9001-2008 Certification at his former company, it seemed pretty streamlined and was a non-issue after the audit. He says the -2015 Certification isn't as cumbersome as the -2008. We'll see...

IMO, the biggest difference between the two standards is 9001:2015 places much more emphasis on risk management (risks and opportunities)than the 9001:2008 version does.

Any successful business, regardless of size, is already doing this to some extent. It is all a matter of how it is documented.

Also in the midst/throes of the effort where I work. My takeaways:

Between the 2008 vs. 2015 version, as stated earlier, everything has been repackaged around the concept of “risk”. You have to address and document things that were otherwise not addressed in the 2008 version.

Whether it ultimately delivers everything proponents promise, in the oilfield mfg. environment having certification means being considered or not. One major customer of ours audits us and is reasonably satisfied with our products and process. Another major customer seeing us through the their corporate lens, thinks we shouldn’t be able open the doors without certification. Business owners can’t ignore that fact.

We engaged a consultant out of Houston. We have had a couple of false starts but the approach and guidance we have gotten has demystified the incorporation of “risk”. It certainly has simplified the process in some areas, added some complexity in others.

At the end of getting certification, we’ll keep our nose clean, every time the majors want to survey us, we can show the latest certification and they’ll leave us alone.
Hopefully