The Leaning of ISO

by Enrique Bekerman 

Lean refers to the elimination of waste and non-value-added activities from a Customer point of view.  ISO 9001:2008 is the widely used international standard that enables many companies to compete in new markets while improving their customers satisfaction and the way they do business.

ISO9001:2008  emphasizes Customer Satisfaction, Management Responsibility and Continual Improvement.  This standard allows a company to manage its business its own way, provided that the basic requirements are met.

This perspective provides flexibility on what needs to be documented, so Lean documentation can be established.  ISO requires several procedures as follows:

 

  • Document Controls
  • Records Controls
  • Non-conforming Product
  • Internal Audits
  • Corrective and
  • Preventive Actions

Your system must contain these procedures and any others that you need  to define your key processes.  These are the processes that can affect the customer or the quality of products and services provided.  Procedures  describe how materials or information flow through your system.

Lean and ISO can provide many synergies including:

  • Lean Principles can be the focal point of the Continual Improvement process.
  • Lean and ISO require a Customer focus
    • Lean metrics provide a means to measure Customer Satisfaction as part of the ISO Management System.
    • Lean eliminates waste from processes as procedures are developed or reviewed.
    • Value Stream Maps identify and eliminate waste from major processes.
    • Kaizen events improve the flow of production and workplace organization.
    • Paperwork is non-value added so thinking Lean prevents you from creating more paperwork than it is absolutely necessary to run, control and improve the business.
    • Standard work, a Lean Concept, can provide the framework for developing standard work instructions.
    • Lean Visual controls demonstrate the control of procedures and work instructions.
    • Photographs of the various step of a process can be used to describe a process instead of wordy work instructions.

    We should conclude that merging Lean and ISO9001:2008 yields a very powerful Quality System.