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Our newsletters provide guidance on ISO 9001,
AS9100, ISO 13485, ISO/TS 16949, TL 9000, ISO
14001,
ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 22000, and related ISO
standards, as well as, Six Sigma.
If you have any questions about the articles
appearing in this issue, or you want to suggest
topics for future issues, please let us
know.
ISO/TS 29001 for Oil and Gas Industries
ISO has published an updated edition of
ISO/TS 29001. This technical specification is
intended to ensure safe and reliable
equipment and services throughout the oil and
gas industries by providing a unique
requirements document for quality
management.
The 2003 edition incorporated the
requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and
supplemental, sector-specific requirements.
ISO/TS 29001:2007 has edited and expanded
these requirements, as well as, added new
definitions.
ISO/TS 29001:2007 was developed to meet the
needs of the oil and gas industry,
specifically the major petroleum,
petrochemical, and natural gas organizations,
as well as, government and regulatory
agencies, as the basis for qualification of
the quality management systems of equipment
manufacturers and service suppliers.
ISO/TS 29001:2007, is
the result of cooperation between the
American Petroleum Institute (API) and ISO
technical committee ISO/TC 67. In conjunction
with API and ISO product specifications, it
will be used as one of the baseline documents
in the API Monogram program for the
qualification of products and services used
in the petroleum industry.
Potential end users include organizations:
Involved in exploration, production,
pipelines, transportation, and refining of
petroleum and natural gas products
Involved in the design, manufacture,
installation, service, and repair of
equipment used in the exploration,
production, transportation, and refining of
petroleum and natural gas products
Providing technical, operational, and
support services to the various industry
sectors identified above
ISO/TS 29001:2007, Petroleum, petrochemical,
and natural gas industries - Sector-specific
quality management systems - Requirements for
product and service supply organizations, is
available from the ANSI Web
Store.
Job Descriptions
Have you adequately defined the
responsibilities for your quality management
system? Clause 5.5.1 of ISO 9001:2000
requires top management to ensure
responsibilities and authorities are defined
and communicated within the
organization.
Responsibilities and authorities should be
expressed to implement and maintain an
efficient and effective quality management
system. Employees should be given this
information so they can help achieve the
quality objectives and establish their
involvement, motivation, and commitment.
The ISO 9001:2000 standard doesn't require
written job descriptions. The
responsibilities and authorities can be
communicated in a combination of the quality
manual, plans, procedures, and instructions.
However, most companies also use job
descriptions.
Properly written job descriptions not only
convey responsibilities, they also help with
hiring, retention, and legal compliance.
Hiring
According to the HR Daily Advisor, bad hires
often stem from not clearly defining what is
required for the job. The result may be a bad
fit, low productivity, poor morale, and
eventually, resignation or termination.
A good job description helps you and the
applicants understand just what the job
requires and what it's like to do it. That
makes for hires who are more likely to become
competent and happy employees.
Responsibility
Job descriptions help clarify roles and
define relationships. They can provide a
basis for analyzing and improving the
organizational structure. They also form the
basis for the compensation system, including
job evaluations and salary levels.
Legal
The HR Daily Advisor says that many a lawsuit
has turned on a bad job description. You
don't want to be in front of a jury
explaining that you fired someone for doing a
poor job at a key task that's not in the job
description. So, if you use job descriptions,
review them to ensure they continue to
accurately reflect the actual functions of
the job.
And, don't overlook the Fair Labor Standards
Act. According to the U.S. Department of
Labor, job titles do not determine exempt
status. In order for an exemption to apply,
the specific job duties and salary must meet
all the requirements of the Department's
regulations. The job descriptions should back
you up.
Mistakes
The HR Daily Advisor lists some of the common
job description mistakes:
1. Writing a job description that describes
the person performing the job, not the job
itself. It's easy to think about the person
in the job, and write about how he or she has
chosen to do the work. A good job description
focuses purely on job expectations and
outcomes, not how the job is handled by the
person doing the job.
2. Using vague wording. It is tempting to
quickly write job descriptions by inserting
vague language like "takes care of
employment." Does that mean routine
recordkeeping, labor negotiations, or
executive recruiting? Does that involve
responsibility for employment or just
participation in the process? Spell it out.
3. Glossing over essential vs. nonessential
functions. With the advent of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), it became
important to separate the essential functions
of a job. This allows persons with
disabilities to still be hired if they can
carry out those key tasks (sometimes with
reasonable accommodation), even if they can't
do lesser tasks. Every job description must
make this separation to be
ADA-compliant.
4. Failing to update. Change happens. There
aren't many jobs that haven't changed
significantly in the past few years. If job
descriptions haven't kept up, confusion and
legal challenges may be headed your way.
To subscribe to the free HR Daily Advisor, go
to this web
site.
ISO/PAS 22399:2007 for Societal Security
ISO has published the first internationally
ratified benchmark document addressing
incident preparedness and continuity
management for organizations in both public
and private sectors.
The Publicly Available Specification, ISO/PAS
22399:2007, Societal security - Guideline for
incident preparedness and operational
continuity management, is based on best
practice from Australia, Israel, Japan, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
Natural disasters, acts of terror,
technology-related accidents, and
environmental incidents have clearly
demonstrated that public and private sectors
are not immune from crises. This has led to
a global awareness that organizations in the
public and private sectors must know how to
prepare for and respond to unexpected and
potentially devastating incidents.
ISO/PAS 22399 establishes the process,
principles, and terminology of incident
preparedness and operational (business)
continuity management within the context of
societal security.
The purpose of the guideline is to provide a
basis for understanding, developing, and
implementing incident preparedness and
operational continuity management within an
organization, as well as, to provide
confidence in organization-to-community,
business-to-business, and
organization-to-customer/client
dealings.
The guideline is a tool to allow public or
private organizations to consider the factors
and steps necessary to prepare for an
unintentionally, intentionally, or naturally
caused incident (disruption, emergency,
crisis or disaster) so that it can manage and
survive the incident and take the appropriate
actions to help ensure the organization's
continued viability.
Organizational resilience requires proactive
preparation for potential incidents and
disruptions, in order to avoid suspension of
critical operations and services, or if
operations and services are disrupted, that
they resume operations and services as
rapidly as required by those who depend on
them.
ISO/PAS 22399 describes a holistic management
process that identifies potential impacts
that threaten an organization and provides a
framework for minimizing their effect.
Top Ten OSHA Cited Violations
According to an article in Safety + Health
magazine, the top ten violations cited during
fiscal 2007 by the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) were:
1. Scaffolding: Failure to provide
fall protection; failure to provide proper
access; failure to provide adequate platform
construction; failure to provide support
scaffolding and guard rails.
2. Fall Protection: Failure to provide
protection; failure to use fall arrest or
safety net; failure to provide protection on
roofs and wall openings.
3. Hazard Communication: Failure to
maintain a written program; failure to
provide training; failure to provide MSDS
sheets for each chemical and maintain MSDS
sheets in workplace.
4. Respiratory Protection: Failure to
establish a program; failure to provide
medical evaluation of ability to use
respirator; failure to provide respirators
and with tight-fitting face piece.
5. Lockout/Tagout: Failure to document
and use procedures for control of potentially
hazardous energy; failure to conduct periodic
inspections; failure to provide training.
6. Powered Industrial Trucks: Failure
to take
damaged trucks out of service; failure to
ensure operators can safely operate trucks;
failure to certify operators are trained and
evaluated.
7. Electrical - Wiring: Failure to
close conductors and protect them from
abrasion; failure to provide junction boxes
with approved covers; failure to connect
flexible cords to devices for strain relief.
8. Ladders: Failure to extend ladder
side rails at least 3 feet above landing
surface; failure to use on stable and level
surfaces; use of top step of ladders as a
step.
9. Machine Guarding: Failure to
provide machine guarding; failure to anchor
fixed machines.
10. Electrical - General Requirements:
Failure to install and use electrical
equipment per factory instructions; failure
to guard equipment; failure to keep work
spaces clear.
For more information on the most frequently
cited violations for your industry sector, go
to this
page at the OSHA web site.
More Changes in ISO/DIS 9001:2008
In the last newsletter, I previewed the
requirement changes in the ISO/DIS 9001:2008
standard. However, the changes planned for
Edition 4 of ISO 9001 weren't limited to
clauses 4 through 8.
0.1 General
ISO 9001:2000 states, "The design and
implementation of an organization's quality
management system is influenced by varying
needs, particular objectives, the products
provided, the processes employed, and the
size and structure of the
organization."
The following factors are added to the list
by ISO/DIS 9001:2008, "influenced by:
its business environment, changes in that
environment, or risks associated with that
environment; "
Later in section 0.1, ISO 9001:2000 states
the standard is used, "to assess the
organization's ability to meet customer,
regulatory, and the organization's own
requirements."
ISO/DIS 9001:2008 changes "regulatory" to "statutory and regulatory requirements
applicable to the product."
0.2 Process Approach
In this section, ISO/DIS 9001:2008 has
modified the definition of the process
approach by adding "to produce the desired
outcome" to the text below:
"The application of a system of processes
within an organization, together with the
identification and interactions of these
processes, and their management to produce
the desired outcome, can be referred to as
the "process approach"."
0.3 Relationship with ISO 9004
The planned revision to ISO 9004:2000 is
expected to be issued in 2009 with extensive
changes, including a new clause structure
that no longer matches that of ISO 9001. As a
result, it will no longer forms a "consistent pair" with ISO 9001.
In anticipation of that change, ISO/DIS
9001:2008 no longer refers to the two
standards as having, "similar structures
in order to assist their application as a
consistent pair."
This section adds that an objective of the
ISO 9004 guidance is to manage for the "sustainable success" of an
organization. And, instead of saying ISO 9004
is a guide to "move beyond the
requirements of ISO 9001", it now says
ISO 9004 is a guide to "extend the
benefits of ISO 9001."
ISO 9001:2000 states ISO 9004 should be used
to pursue "continual improvement of
performance", but ISO/DIS 9001:2008 has
reworded it to pursue "systematic and
continual improvement of the organization's
overall performance".
0.4 Compatibility with Other Management
Systems
The change at this section was to refer to
ISO 14001:2004 instead of ISO 14001:1996.
1. Scope 1.1 General
This section still explains that ISO 9001
specifies requirements for a quality
management system. It refers to the product
meeting customer and applicable regulatory
requirements, as well as, enhancing customer
satisfaction by assuring conformity to
customer and applicable regulatory
requirements.
ISO/DIS 9001:2008 has changed the two uses of "regulatory" to "statutory and
regulatory".
The Note at this section used to say the term "product" applied only to the product
intended for, or required by, a customer. ISO
/DIS 9001:2008 has expanded the Note to read "or required by, a customer or the
product realization processes." It goes
on to add, "This applies to any intended
output resulting from product realization
processes, including purchasing.
A second Note has been added to explain that, "Statutory and regulatory requirements may
be expressed as legal requirements."
1.2 Application
ISO 9001:2000 states that any exclusions
cannot affect the organization's ability, or
responsibility, to provide product that meets
customer and applicable regulatory
requirements. ISO/DIS 9001:2008 replaces "regulatory" with "statutory and
regulatory".
2. Normative Reference
Although the text at this section has been
significantly reduced, the key change is to
reference ISO 9000:2005 instead of the old
ISO 9000:2000.
3. Terms and Definitions
The change at this section was to drop the
explanation of the supply chain terms,
including that "supplier" replaced
"subcontractor" and "organization" replacing
"supplier". The explanation was needed when
making the transition from ISO 9001:1994 to
ISO 9001:2000, but not now.
Annex A
Table A.1 in the Annex was revised to show
the correspondence of ISO/DIS 9001:2008
clauses with ISO 14001:2004 (instead of ISO
14001:1996). Table A.2 shows the reverse
correspondence, from ISO 14001:2004 clauses
to ISO/DIS 9001:2008 clauses.
The old Annex B that showed the
correspondence of ISO 9001:2000 and ISO
9001:1994 has been dropped since the clause
structure of ISO 9001:2000 and ISO/DIS
9001:2008 are the same.
Bibliography
The bibliography has been updated with the
latest versions of standards, and in a few
cases, references to new standards, e.g., ISO
10002:2004 on complaint handling, ISO
10019:2005 on the selection and use of
consultants, and IEC 61160:2006 on design
reviews.
Whittington & Associates provides training, consulting and auditing services for
quality systems based on
ISO 9001, ISO/TS16949, TL9000, AS9100, ISO 13485,
as well as, ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 22000, and ISO 14001.
