I’ve updated the Oxebridge Q001 standard, now in draft version 0.6, and it’s available at the main Q001 page here. As usual, it’s free.
This one is a dramatic update, with all the errors from 0.4 fixed, as well as some new content. This version adds new requirements language for configuration management, preventive maintenance of equipment, tooling control, first piece and first article inspections, and more. Best of all, it’s all scalable, so you can use those clauses if they are applicable, or exclude them if not (I’m looking at you, service industry.)
This edition also strips away every last bit of ISO language, even from the clause titles. Other than the 10-clause major outline structure, there’s nothing left of ISO 9001, and yet I think we improved its ability to fully comply with ISO 9001.
Best of all, thanks to a colleague at GKN Aerospace, we cracked the code on adding “Incident Investigation” to the standard, something ISO has been too timid to tackle. This tiny clause finally addresses the problem of ISO 9001 certified companies who release deadly products on the public, or get involved in some other quality-related scandal that should never have happened. Now, they are forced to address any such “incidents” in their corrective action system, or they’d be nonconforming to Q001. Fast forward to the days when companies get certified to Q001, and you can see where I am going: those companies would either have to develop a robust plan on how they were addressing the disaster, or their Q001 cert would get yanked.
Oops, did I say Q001 certification?
Yes, it’s something we are talking about. No, Oxebridge won’t become a certificate mill and start issuing bogus certs. But we are looking at ways to develop a globally-recognized accreditation body that would then accredit individuals or companies who would issue Oxebridge Q001 certificates to end user orgs. The obvious problem is that to get full international recognition implies we’d have to join IAF and share all our intellectual property with the companies we’d very much rather not have anything to do with, like ANAB and UKAS. Just imagine how those guys would fuck this up.
Which means that while Oxebridge had to come up with its own standard because ISO wouldn’t listen, we may also have to come up with our own IAF, too. Should be interesting. Or terrifying, if you’re IAF.
Anyway, it’s early days yet, so I don’t want to give away too many details. Go grab your copy of Oxebridge Q001 now, and enjoy. The final release version of 1.0 should be out soon, so send me your comments ASAP.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 30 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world