World Quality Day (WQD) is almost here and SQMC has a special event lined up to celebrate.

Health and safety pointers for the workplace from SQMC’s resident expert Jennie Clark

2014 marks a dramatic step forward in the Scottish Government’s commitment to reducing commercial waste through the introduction of legislation, entitled Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

This legislation, which begins to come into force at the turn of the year, will affect all businesses across all sectors, but there is help available to reduce the potential impacts.

A combination of our continuing growth nationwide and retirement of some current SQMC associates means several opportunities have arisen for dynamic, experienced, highly ethical and progressively-minded ISO consultants to join our team of approved suppliers.

What does Quality really mean and why is it relevant to me and my business?

Management Review is a process found in clause 5.6.1 of ISO 9001:2008. Chairman of the Chartered Quality Institute West of Scotland branch, Ron Rivans, explains the purpose of this process, who it involves, and the benefits of it to the practical value of your organisation's Quality Management System.

Risk and Preventive Action

Annex SL text does not include a clause giving specific requirements for "preventive action‟. This is because one of the key purposes of a formal management system is to act as a preventive tool.

Process approach

ISO 9001:2008 promoted the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of a quality management system. This proposed revision to the standard makes this more explicit by including clause 4.4.2 Process approach – specifying requirements considered essential to the adoption of a process approach.

Context of the organisation

Annex SL has introduced two new clauses relating to the context of the organisation, 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context and 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties.   

Together these clauses require the organisation to determine the issues and requirements that can impact on the planning of the quality management system and can be used as an input into the development of the quality management system.

Clause 7.5.2 of ISO 9001:2008 is commonly misunderstood. SQMC's Ron Rivans explains it simple terms, giving practical examples of how it applies.