Blog & News Posts

NEWS
OPINION

IAF CertSearch is an Absolute Mess

CertSearch is an example of how things go wrong when oversight bodies yield to the demands of those they are supposed to regulate.

HUMOR

The (Scandal-Free) Revised Oxebridge Quality Promise

With all the scandals and misbehavior plaguing our profession. I think it’s time for Oxebridge to show the world how it’s done and update our Quality Promise for a new generation of ISO users and professionals.

ISO Grants Rare Award to Oxebridge VP Chris Paris [HUMOR]

Not content with merely being voted the World's Most Awesome ISO 9001 Consultant in the World, I can now add "ISO Award Winning ISO 9001 Consultant" to my growing list of credentials. And this time I didn't even have to invent the award myself! Over at the...

GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS

Exploding the Myths of ISO 9001:2015

The FDIS of ISO 9001:2015 is fast upon us, but already some myths and memes are forming, much to the frustration of anyone who’s actually read the thing. So let’s fire up the debunkerizer, and see if we can cut through this mess.

New Resource for CBs or ABs on Processing Oxebridge Complaints

To help those Certification Bodies or Accreditation Bodies who have received an Oxebridge complaint, we’ve published a handy guide on how to properly respond in accordance with the accreditation rules, as well as a list of things not to do.

Ensure A Fair Registration Audit With These Contractual Obligations For Your ISO 9001 Registrar

This comprehensive document provides you a full array of contractual riders you should flow down to your ISO 9001 registrar, to ensure they remain in compliance with the accreditation rules of ISO 17021. These contractual clauses will protect your organization from numerous rogue CB practices, such as the spreading of your confidential intellectual property, improper filing of audit reports, and poor reporting of nonconformities.

Top Ten Dumb Things ISO Consultants Say

ISO consultants love to parrot each other. One dummy will say something that sounds reasonably smart, and get picked up by everyone else until it becomes an assumed truth. This is how the meme "say what you do, and do what you say" got started. They tend to cause a...

AS9100 Configuration Management for the Small Machine Shop

AS9100’s requirements for configuration management (CM) are well understood by the massive aerospace primes, but can present overkill and confusion for small downstream suppliers. Fortunately, for the small machine shop, the configuration management requirements can...

Why Auditing “Active Orders” is Terrible Practice

As recently discussed, self-proclaimed ISO 9001 expert David Seear revealed his idea of a "process audit" is to merely select a handful of active orders, chosen during a pre-audit shop floor tour, and then audit those. Unfortunately this practice isn't something...

Process Audits for ISO 9001 Made Blindingly Simple

So many are confused by process auditing, it's become a virus in the industry. Let's inoculate. A process audit shifts the focus from the product to the process, and examines each process' ability to produce a product that meets the requirements for that process. You...

Six Sense Auditing: How Your Eyeballs Fail You During Audits

Vision is great. It helps us to drive our cars, choose our mates, and accurately spear a woolly mammoth for dinner; often in that order, if your date goes well. But when it comes to conducting audits, our eyeballs let us down. They lead us down the wrong path, and...