“We have an ISO process audit coming up in two months and we have to get all the documentation updated before it starts. So, that makes it a two month Time Span goal,” Olivia described. “I am not sure I understand. This is a very complex project. The documentation is very detailed and technical. It will require someone at my level to supervise, to make sure it is correct. If we fail this audit, it puts several contracts in jeopardy. But a two month Time Span looks like Stratum I work.”
“There are two kinds of complexity. One type is created by the amount of technical detail. The other type of complexity is created by uncertainty,” I replied.
“Okay, I understand that if something has a lot of technical detail, it will take a long time just to parse through it. That might make a project’s Time Span longer. But I cannot get over the fact that this project has to be complete in two months, but the level of work is definitely higher than Stratum I.”
“Don’t be fooled. Because you only have two months, a great deal of uncertainty is gone. While you may think this is a tough project (detailed complexity), the limited Time Span forces this to be a simpler project.
“In two months,” I continued, “you don’t have time to start your documentation over from scratch. You don’t have time for massive overhaul, no in-depth analysis. You only have time to perform a quick review, observe a limited number of examples and make some relatively minor changes. Here’s the rub.
“The real Time Span of this project started the moment you finished version one of your current documentation. The true Time Span of the project is closer to one year than two months. Unfortunately, no manager took this assignment. No work was done. Procrastination killed its true purpose, and likely, the quality of the end product.” -TF
This procrastination is a killer of not just ISO checks, it kills any audit. As mentioned in the post the time line started the day of the final work on the SOP creation.
These processes are developed to keep your work at an effectively hight quality rate, 2 months to cram the paper work and ISO figures only looks sloppy.
Think of the peanut butter salminila epidemic that is going on. One of those plants was NEVER inpected or certified! Once the industry adopts newer safety reguations acceptance keeps you and your industry out of lawsuits and bankruptcy
I’m an idiot and I ran an ISO 9001 project for a set of global operations that we did from sudden announcement from the CEO at headquarters to review in 90 days, with the highest score the auditor had ever given, so it can’t really be that difficult in 60 days if you already have procedures and policies. I’ve never been sure why people think it’s that hard to do. It’s not rocket science: just straight-forward stuff. If you have been doing anything close to your job as a manager, there’s not much to do. Our performance numbers went up during the project, too, which was an added bonus.
Procrastination always kills projects. Leaving things until the very last minute doesn’t help the situation it just prolongs the outcome. Communication is very important when it comes to any kind of audits. Knowing the dead lines ahead of time is very important to plan the project assign responsibility to your team members, and most of all keep everyone informed by having weekly updated in how the project is coming along. If this ISO audit is your normal yearly audits, and all of your documentation is already in place, you should be able to accomplish this project without any difficulties. I’m very aware of this ISO audits and they are not as difficult as they seem. With good communication and good leadership you should be able to accomplish this project in 60 days.