Update on ISO 9001 and Plone

Before

Quite a while ago (November 2009) I wrote an article about how we got certified for ISO 9001:2008 using Plone. In this article we describe how we created the system and how Plone and ISO 9001 can be good friends and very useful in your company.

Now

Currently our Plone based Quality Management System is bigger than ever and growing almost daily. All the members of the Four Digits team write procedures, instructions and manuals (employee manual, yearly plans). Currently our system consists of 123 instructions, 14 procedures and 9 manuals.

Keep your info updated

The system is open for all the employees of Four Digits, everyone can write and update the content of the system and this works very nice in practice. This encourages people to write documentation since it's a collaboration of everyone

Audit yourself and have yourself audited by an External Auditor

Since the system is open and selforganizing you will need a quality assurance controller. Somebody who can keep an eye on the quality of the content. We organize two audit sessions a year where the qualtiy assurance controller audits all the aspects of the quality management system. Next to that our external auditor (DNV) meets with us to audit the whole system and our company.

Feedback from our lead auditor

In July this year Det Norske Veritas reviewed our company and quality management system with success. Our ISO 9001:2008 certificate is extended!

The lead auditor who did the audit gave us good feedback on how we could improve things and was also impressed how we managed to implement ISO 9001 using Plone. He especially liked that ISO 9001 wasn't the goal, but a helpful tool to improve quality company wide. Most people want to get certified to say they are ISO 9001 certified instead of really try to implement it in practice.

Article "Kwaliteit met een grote K" written by Peter Blankestijn (DNV)

To celebrate this sucess our auditor, Peter Blankestijn wrote an article (in dutch language) about our success story. If you are interested in an English version or want to know more about this, please contact me and I will gladly answer your questions.