Issue 51 – Clause 7.3: Awareness
ISO 9001:2015…
Clause 7.3: Awareness
What’s the intent of Clause 7.3?… In our last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 50) we discussed the topic of “competence”, and now here in Clause 7.3 we address the area of “awareness”. The intent of this Clause is to make sure that everyone who performs work, under the organization’s control, are made aware of how important Quality is, as they carry out their individual activities. This is primarily aimed at employees however the wording here means that this requirement also applies to Vendors/Suppliers/Contractors. This is really no different than how companies make everyone aware of how important Safety is when performing their jobs, which many organizations do an excellent job of, including all of the vendors and contract personnel who are made “safety aware” when they enter the company premises every day. Use your approach to Safety as a model of how to handle the requirements in this Clause.
Note A: This Clause DOES NOT include requirements for “documented information”.
Note B: In case you were wondering, the content for these Newsletters comes from working in the field with my Clients, and with their ISO Certification Bodies. I gain a lot of hands-on experience from conducting training workshops, gap audits and internal audits, where the requirements of the Standard have to be interpreted and applied to each unique situation. A popular training request is our on-site Internal Process Auditor Training for ISO 9001:2015 since you will need to do a complete round of internal audits to the new Standard prior to your external upgrade audit. On that note, some organizations are opting to use an outside resource to assist with their internal audits in order to meet deadlines (…more details on this service, as well as the training sessions we offer, can be found below).
The new numbering format…
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
Clause 7.3 Awareness consists of zero (0) Sub-Clauses…
The requirements within this Clause are essentially asking the organization to ensure that anyone who performs work on their behalf (employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, etc.), clearly understand the importance of ensuring Quality is maintained for their Customers.
Clause 7.3 itemizes four (4) ways they expect you to promote Quality awareness, with Part [a], asking organizations to publicize their commitment to Quality, using their Quality Policy statement. This helps build on the previously stated requirements found back in Clause 5.2.2 dealing with communication of the Quality Policy. Part [b] continues on this same path by asking that people are also made aware of what Quality objectives exist that are relevant to their individual roles. This also builds on the previously stated requirements found back in Clause 6.2.1 dealing with communication of the Quality Objectives. The requirements found in parts [c & d] wants organizations to make Quality even more important by ensuring that everyone understands how their individual actions can help or hurt the level of Quality being provided to Customers.
For making employees “quality aware”, many organizations will use their existing performance review processes to address all of the requirements within this Clause. Just make sure that “quality” shows up as a job responsibility during this review process. In addition to the above approach, and for those employees who are not included as part of a formal performance review process, “quality awareness” can also be addressed through various communication techniques such as town-hall meetings, department/shift meetings and/or postings on the intranet or bulletin boards. For contractor or vendor/supplier personnel, they could be made aware of their “quality” responsibilities as part of their contract requirements and/or through orientation training.
Be sure to watch for our next Newsletter issue where we will cover another section of ISO 9001:2015…
PS: Don’t forget to look at the Q&A section below for some final thoughts…
To view all of our past Newsletters or to sign up to receive them… click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Documentation Development Training Workshop for ISO 9001:2015
This Documentation Development Training Workshop for ISO 9001:2015 Session is intended to be a very interactive, hands-on session (hence the name Workshop) where your QMS documentation will be created/revised, with guidance from an experienced facilitator. This type of session can help launch your transition efforts by getting a lot accomplished within a compressed time-frame. If your organization has already begun the re-write then this session can be used to validate what you’ve accomplished so far, or if you haven’t yet begun, it can be the catalyst to get things started (…which is usually the hardest part). Deciding how to move from your current QMS structure into a new one can be a daunting task and this session can help you navigate through it. A copy of a sample Quality Manual (re-iterating the “shall” requirements found within the ISO 9001:2015 Standard) will be provided to each participant. As always, our focus will be on how to develop a simplified and streamlined quality management system, that helps to drive improvement in your business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ISO 9001:2015 Essentials + Gap Audit
This combines the ISO 9001:2015 Essentials Session with a Gap Audit – This approach is used to assist organizations in launching their transition efforts for this new ISO Standard. This event accomplishes two things: a) it provides education on the new ISO 9001:2015 Standard for your key personnel (i.e. internal auditors; etc.), by highlighting the differences from the 2008 version; and b) assesses the gap from where you are today to where you need to be to achieve compliance to this new ISO Standard. Training certificates covering education on the new ISO 9001:2015 Standard, as well as issuing of a Gap Audit Report for distribution to your Top Management, are the two deliverables from this event. On a final note, a closing meeting can be arranged with key individuals so they can hear first hand the results of the Gap Audit that was performed. PS: We’ve also done this session with just the QMS Management Rep attending, which allowed them to quickly get up to speed on this new Standard, as well as to see how much of an effort the transition will be… and of course they receive their own Training Certificate as part of this event. This also allowed them to avoid traveling offsite to get the training they needed anyways, as evidence for their Certification Bodies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: How do you perform an audit for Clause 7.3 of ISO 9001:2015?
A: For Clause 7.3, an Audit Checklist should cover these areas:
– How does the organization ensure that the persons doing work under its control are aware of the Quality Policy?
– How does the organization ensure that the persons doing work under its control are aware of the Quality Objectives that are relevant to them?
– How does the organization ensure that the persons doing work under its control are aware of the benefits of their own improved performance on the QMS?
– How does the organization ensure that the persons doing work under its control are aware of the implications of not conforming to the QMS requirements?
(Make sure to interview more than one person and obtain examples for the items listed above)
Until next time…
Tim Renaud
Helping Business Professionals Reduce Risk and Remove Waste!