Too often management sighs when they know they have another one of those “ISO meetings.” I would too if it consisted of listening to one person, the quality manager, report on his or her findings for an entire hour using “ISO” language no one else understands.
- Iso 9001 Management Review Requirements
- Iso 9001 Management Review
- Iso 9001 Management Review Sample Report
I mean the ISO standard tells you exactly what you need to discuss and report on during these management review meetings. What could go wrong, right?
This procedure addresses the requirements of two ISO 9001 clauses. QOP-56-01 Management Review. To attend shall receive minutes of the review meeting and.
Iso 9001 Management Review Requirements
Well, if the quality manager is the only one talking throughout the meetings and rigidly sticks to an agenda of items using “ISO” language no one else understands, can you blame management for the sighs when they are reminded of another management meeting?
Think about it…how fun is a conversation when the other person never lets you get a word in? You have to listen to their stories and when you go to interject, they just talk louder and continue on.
On the other hand, there are those you have a conversation with where one hour with them feels like five minutes. Why? They talked, you listened and when you talked, they listened!
This is a good lesson to take into how we set up our management review meetings. Treat your management review meetings as a platform for members of your team to discuss what they see working well and not working so well within your quality management system. If you, as the quality manager, take a step back during these meetings to listen to what others are saying they can really reveal true issues within your system. I explained what works well DURING a management review meeting in a previous post (click here to read it).
What To Do When the Meeting is Over?
While what you do during the management meeting is important, the actions you take afterwards and your organization of discussion topics is even more important.
If you’ve listened to your management team and took copious notes, you didn’t have time during the meeting to organize what was discussed and fit them into the various input requirements from Clause 5.6.
Your job is not over when the meeting ends because now you need to organize your notes and what was discussed so you can create any follow-up actions, complete any corrective action forms, and ensure any problems discovered don’t get overlooked. When problems are not solved or followed up on, your product or service quality will start to slip.
In order to stay accountable to topics discussed at management review meetings it is important to create a chart or table to organize what are called action items. Here is an example:
Iso 9001 Management Review
(Note: This is not a complete table...just enough examples to ensure you understand)
Notice how this particular Action Item table is organized by department. Another way to organize it is by the management review outputs listed in clause 5.6 in the ISO 9001:2008 standard. Here is what that would like look:
(Note: This is not a complete table...just enough examples to ensure you understand)
Iso 9001 Management Review Sample Report
As you can see in the two example tables above, each category, if discussed at the meeting, has an action plan for the next meeting. Each action plan is responsible to one person and a description of how they plan to do it is listed as well. This method of objective, person responsible, and action plan ensures issues discussed at your meetings are not forgotten about. There may not be an action item for each department every management review meeting. However, if a problem or concern is raised at a meeting, it is important management decides on an action plan to remedy it.
Also notice in both examples how previous action items are followed up. In the management section of the Management Review Notes Table 1 there was a problem at the last meeting concerning “filling out final inspection forms.” The result was 29/39 final inspection forms were completed in the previous month. Management decided to keep this same action item but increase percentage complete for the next meeting: “improve final inspection form completing to 85%.” This action item is listed second in the far right column. Depending on if this goal is reached or not at the next meeting will determine how long this action item needs to be followed up upon.
Sometimes it may take your organization two or three meetings before a particular action item or problem is finally solved in a way you are happy with. This is ok! There is no ISO requirement that problems need to be solved in “x” amount of time. What is important to an auditor is seeing your organization is dedicated to talking about quality management issues and taking actions to fix them.
Here is a list of other actions you should be taking as a quality manager after management review meeting:
- Review notes and input necessary information into meeting minutes template of your choosing.
- Ensure action items identify due dates, personnel responsible, and any actions to be taken.
- Send completed management meeting minutes form to management. It is especially important for those management members with an action item for the next meeting to receive a copy.
- Set a date for the next management review meeting.
- Make a plan of action to follow up on actionable items before the next meeting.
Please let me know in the comments section below if there are any other steps you take during your management review meetings to ensure their success.