ISO 9001:2015 formally adopts a more risk-based approach to Quality management. In this 3rd installment of Karen MacKenzie's 'The thing about auditing...' series looks at 7 ways which risk-based audits can provide a good return on your investment of time and wages.

The thing about auditing is that it is risk-based. We audit what is important – what poses the greatest risk to the organisation. Just as you would at home in carrying out checks last thing at night, you check the most important areas – the areas of highest risk: the front door, the back door, the windows, that the electrics are switched off.

The long anticipated Final Draft (FDIS) of the new ISO 9001:2015 International Standard was finally published on Friday. Chair of the ISO subcommittee revising the standard, Nigel Croft, commented on whether there were any major changes in this latest development:

Part 2 of Karen MacKenzie's series: 'The thing about auditing...' (catch up on part 1). Today, Karen explains the value of standardisation meetings for your auditors.

As an auditor, the responsibility for my on-going development, to be the best I can be, lies with me.

Karen MacKenzie reflects on the 'pinball wizardry' of auditing

I discovered that I am in the habit of starting sentences with this phrase, ‘the thing about auditing….’

I use it when I’m auditing, I use it when I’m training auditors, and I use it when I’m working as a consultant implementing ISO management systems.

Where would we be without Standards? In the UK and across much of Europe we often complain about the standard of products or services – but at least we know, or should do, that there are governmental and organisational Standards in place to guarantee a certain level of Quality and safety.

Health and safety regulations can sometimes seem like an easy target for some tabloids, who circulate unfounded myths about bans on playground conker games and trapeze artists in hard hats, which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) must then go on to disprove.

You can’t mention FIFA in recent years without immediately mentioning the numerous corruption allegations that follow.

The Scottish Quality Management Centre (SQMC) has been at the forefront of Quality Management Systems (QMS) training, consultation and implementation for over 25 years and utilising advancements in business software solutions is helping to keep them there.

Organisations that implement a Quality Management System (QMS) will benefit from an upturn in sales, reduction in costs and improved operating efficiency.

When East Kilbride-based social housing service provider, The Furnishing Service (TFS), identified a real need to achieve ISO certifications to get the most from business expansion, they entrusted staff training and Quality Systems assessment to the Scottish Quality Management Centre (SQMC).