Issue 94 – Is this your chance to go paperless?
ISO 9001:2015…
Is this your chance to go paperless?
I appreciate receiving emails with questions and/or comments from readers of this Newsletter… please continue to do so since it provides me with direction on where to aim the content of these publications. In my last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 93) we discussed the topic of “Will remote auditing be the new normal?”, and now in this Newsletter we will discuss “Is this your chance to go paperless?”.
The ISO 9001:2015 Element numbering…
Element 4 – Context of the organization
Element 5 – Leadership
Element 6 – Planning
Element 7 – Support
Element 8 – Operation
Element 9 – Performance evaluation
Element 10 – Improvement
Are you paperless?… If your Quality management System (QMS) is already “paperless”… then know that you have one less thing to worry about as a result of the business interruptions everyone has experienced. However, if your organization still has a mixed bag of hardcopy and digital documents then you are not alone since many companies continue to operate this way. I would say that most no longer have physical manuals because they made the switch to only online/electronic versions of their QMS policies, procedures and work instructions. However, paper based forms, filled out by hand, are still a very popular method of collecting QMS records.
On a positive note, many employees now use company software/database systems to enter data while performing their jobs, which has eliminated a lot of previously used paper-based forms. Also, let’s not forget that most blank forms are now printed from a computer system managing their QMS documents, versus making copies of a controlled master copy of a form, like in years past.
Is there an opportunity to accelerate this trend towards being paperless?… Perhaps one way to take another step towards being paperless is to begin scanning all of those forms that are now filling drawers in cabinets. I can think of many positive outcomes from doing this, the first being you can now throw out those hard-copies and free up lots of filing cabinets, not to mention gaining valuable floor space in your office. A second positive would be that these scanned records are now “searchable”… how much time would be saved from NOT having to flip through volumes of paper to find something? A third benefit is that the location of a physical document would no longer be a constraint for any offsite employee, because they could now just go up into the Cloud and find what they needed.
There may be many other benefits besides the few I’ve listed here, including one that I should have mentioned at the beginning and that is when you scan the original hard-copy you have eliminated the risk of losing that information forever… fire and flood come immediately to mind… but also don’t forget about paperwork that gets lost or thrown out when people simply leave the company.
Ideally, instead of scanning a completed hard-copy form, it would make more sense to “digitally” type into the fields on the form using a tablet (or a mobile phone) and save that “scanning” step. This is starting to happen in some industries but may be still a few years away from everyone using this approach. However as a result of this “new normal” that businesses will be evolving into, there may be accelerated progress with new technologies being introduced to assist people in “form filling” that will be all digital and contact-less… don’t be surprised about how many things will change going forward.
On a final note, I ran across a company who hadn’t got to the stage yet of “digitally filling out fields on a form”, but found a different approach to use… they converted all of their forms into Adobe PDF format and then used a digital pen to handwrite their entries on the screen of their mobile phone. The employees using this PDF writing tool said it felt similar (and familiar) to the act of filling out a form, without the hassle of dealing with a piece of physical paper when they were done… they just hit “save” and it was automatically uploaded into the Cloud.
Be sure to watch for our next Newsletter issue where I will be answering some of the questions that I get from Readers of my Newsletters about how to implement the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 in a specific and practical way, that will also help improve business performance…
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Need Help?
ISO 9001:2015 Internal Audit Outsourcing (we can do it for you OR with you!)
For cost effectiveness, the Internal Audit function can be outsourced to an external experienced auditor on a periodic basis. This will provide an independent and objective assessment to management, of where process issues may exist, along with identifying opportunities for improvement. It will also provide the evidence needed to satisfy the Internal Audit requirements in the ISO Standards. We have used two different approaches with this service: a) We conduct the entire audit ourselves, or b) We act as the lead auditor, and along with your Team of internal auditors, we complete the entire audit together. This latter approach allows your people to receive guidance and direction from an experienced lead auditor while at the same time maintaining significant involvement in the internal audit process.
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Internal Process Auditor Training for ISO 9001:2015
The two (2) day Internal Process Auditing for ISO 9001:2015 Training Session is focused on a process approach to auditing with the objective being not only to assess conformance of the quality management system, but also to uncover process improvements during an audit. This goes hand in hand with the process auditing requirements found within ISO 19011 and the process approach covered in ISO 9001:2015, which promotes continual process improvement throughout this Standard. An enhanced checklist is developed, and there will be workshops throughout, to reinforce learning, as well as a live, practice audit. If you are looking to meet the ISO 9001:2015 internal audit requirements and to “raise the bar” for your internal audit program then this is the course you should consider.
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Until next time…
Tim Renaud
Helping Business Professionals Reduce Risk and Remove Waste!