in my iso book period review and update is part of the plan.... and should be yours too.
This should be part of any quality system certified or not.
Problem being that too often people like to use this to simply add more stuff and perhaps don't even consider removing things.
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When faced with such a demand or recommendation from a consultant or even the QC department the first thing I ask for is to be shown the specific paragraph in the standard that requires this.
Often you find that it is their interpretation of the standard not the standard itself.
One then has to be careful as this can get like arguing religion or politics. You and I can read the same "must do" statement and reach differing conclusions about how to get there.
Not asking or prying into such things is a big problem when using outside consultants and makes for a hard to use, hated by all system.
The hired gun works for you and is sub-servant to you. Do not let them run wild.
The better ones know this, will not be insulted if you want more info when you think needed. Others think they were born at the right hand of God and can be .... well difficult.
All nice to go way overboard on such things but the real manufacturing world does not have unlimited dollars to spend.
The entire system should work
for you and in the both long and short term save you money.
If not it was done wrong.
At times it may be necessary to replace the hired gun if he/she is not doing what you need.
Too many people will not do this but you would fire a shitty production worker in a heartbeat so......
Consultants are employees, plain and simple. All their fancy talk means nothing and there are good employees and bad employees.
Create a system that works and makes money.
The idea of any QC/TQM system should be to eliminate mass inspections not add more.
(I'll step off my soapbox now but the many bad implementations out there rev me up a bit and give the whole quality and cert idea a bad name)
Bob