ISO 9001:2015 – Newsletter – Issue 69

Issue 69 – “…and services”?

ISO 9001:2015…

“…and services”?

Receiving emails with questions and/or comments from readers of this Newsletter is much appreciated… please continue to do so since it provides me with ideas on what these publications should cover.  The theme I would like to discuss in this Newsletter relates to another big change that took place with the new ISO 9001:2015 Standard, that being the added phrase “and services” each time the word “product” showed up.

In my last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 68) we discussed the topic of “differences of opinion” or “differences in interpretation” and now in this Newsletter we will discuss whether “…and services” has had any impact on organizations who have upgraded to the new ISO 9001:2015 Standard.

Let me begin by saying that based on a sampling of anecdotal evidence observed with my Clients (along with other organizations who’ve expressed their experiences online), it appears that auditors from the ISO Registrars (ISO Certification Bodies) did not make much of an issue with this fairly significant new change of “and services“.  This is a bit surprising seeing as how many organizations definitely slant their processes AND their QMS documentation towards products ONLY.  Almost every product manufacturer/producer currently registered to ISO 9001 would all have at least one service called “delivery or transportation” of their goods to their Customers.  This should have caused changes to existing processes, and/or implementation of brand new processes.  Perhaps the ISO Registrars are waiting for the next surveillance audit to drill down deeper into this new area.  Actually, this could be a great way to demonstrate “continual improvement” if you took the initiative to shore up this part of your QMS!

I’d like to take a moment and give you one possible justification for not resisting these added words (“and services”).  If you think about all of the product purchases you make from all of the different organizations you’ve dealt with over the years, you should realize that you really expect more from these companies than just the item itself.  You expect them to provide product information that is accurate and complete… you expect them to make it easy to place your order with them, with hassle free ways to pay for it… you expect them to either deliver it to you, or make it available to you to obtain yourself, undamaged nor defective… and you expect them to handle your complaint/return/exchange/refund when it is not what you expected.  As an organization, if you want your Customers to avoid spending their money with your competitors then you need to sell them more than just your “products”, you have to also sell the “services” that go along with them.  This is where your company can differentiate itself from other vendors selling the same products.  Your “services” can be your competitive advantage that will encourage Customers to remain loyal and be repeat buyers.  The addition of the words “and services” in the ISO 9001:2015 Standard is an opportunity to improve the odds that your company will not get run over by your competitors.

What areas, or processes, are affected by the new phrase “and services”?  Let’s begin by looking at the most obvious Clauses that are affected.   Starting with Clause 4.3, it says that the “…scope shall state the types of products and services covered” and this is where you will identify what services are IN (and therefore which services are OUT).  Be careful with the services that you list because ALL of the “shalls” found within ISO 9001:2015 applies to EACH service (at least in theory).  Clause 4.4 is up next and it’s where you will need to outline and describe what processes you have in place to supply EACH of your services.

Clause 5.1.2 wants you to focus on what your Customers expect from EACH and Clause 5.2 asks that your Quality Policy encompass these services, and finally with Clause 5.3 asking you to assign responsibilities to whoever will oversee these services.

Clause 6.1 wants you too treat these service processes like any other by taking actions to address the risks and opportunities associated with them, while Clause 6.2 gets interesting because you’ll need to make sure you have quality objectives specifically connected to each service you’ve listed.

Of course, Clauses 7.1 to 7.4 all apply in their own specific way but Clause 7.5 has a very direct connection since it wants organizations to make sure that all documentation pertaining to these services are controlled, and includes instructional documents on to how to supply these services, as well as records proving they were provided as expected/planned.

Clause 8.2 is where you and your Customer get on the same page as to what they want and what you will provide, and you definitely don’t want any surprises here… not with your products AND not with your services.  If you design your products then you should also design those services that are unique to them, which is what Clause 8.3 is asking organizations to do.  Clause 8.4 gets a little challenging and I find the easiest way to deal with services supplied by external providers is to think inbound services and outbound services (which are the services you said you will provide to the external Customer).  Either way, if you are obtaining these services from an external source then you’ll need to specify your requirements and you’ll need to monitor their performance.  Clause 8.5 is where all the action is in how you will supply these services (outbound to your Customer) in a controlled fashion.  Clause 8.6 is where you outline when these services are ready for release and finally Clause 8.7 covers how you plan on handling any “service” surprises (i.e. service nonconformities, such as late delivery, etc).

Moving on to Clause 9.1, this is where your organization must outline how it will “monitor” each outbound service, how it will “measure” each outbound service, how it will “analyze” each outbound service and how it will “evaluate” each outbound service.  This must not only include data obtained internally on your outbound services but also external information received from the Customers about how satisfied they are with your outbound services.  Clause 9.2 implies that you will also audit all of the processes involved in supplying your outbound services to your Customers, and Clause 9.3 means that top management needs to review how its outbound “services” are performing against expectations.

In regards to the last Element of ISO 9001:2015, Clause 10.1 expects organizations to continually improve its”service” processes, and Clause 10.3 also wants you to look at your QMS to see if it can be improved with respect to those same “services”.  Finally, Clause 10.2 is where you will review all of your “service” nonconformities, along with any Customer complaints about those “services”, so you can decide when comprehensive corrective actions will be needed.