Wow! I got a lot of comments on last week's post about how far Santa Claus complies with ISO 9001. Thanks especially to Pia Hamrin, Dawn Ringrose, Petro Shoturma, and Jeremy Panitz for their detailed feedback!
What interested me was the remarkable level of unanimity among the responses. Of course each commenter had a unique perspective. But since Santa Claus is fictional,* any commonality among the responses must be traceable to the second half of the discussion—namely, to the expectations that grow naturally out of working with ISO 9001. Those of us who work with the standard regularly have come to know that some clauses need a lot more attention than others, because the impact they have on organizations is so consequential.
Even if you aren't worried about Santa Claus, ask yourself whether these same clauses aren't important topics in your organization.
Common concerns
It was no surprise to me that the two topics which attracted the most attention were Internal controls and Complaint handling. Businesses differ a lot: organizational contexts can be very different, as can the quality of customer requirements. For some companies those topics might require a lot of attention, while for others the same topics might manage themselves. But internal controls always matter—to everyone. And without complaint handling, you have no feedback on your operations to make sure your customers are satisfied. So nearly everyone agreed to focus on those areas.
Naughty or nice?
Everyone knows that Santa Claus checks whether each child is "naughty or nice," but how does this happen? Dawn's reply assured me that Santa uses a proprietary algorithm. But Pia asked how that algorithm is validated, and whether the sources are documented? Jeremy suggested that Santa consults with children's deities around the world to make his determinations.
Complaint handling
Petro and Pia both raised the issue that there is no publicized mechanism for complaint handling. Jeremy suggested a resolution to this topic, though, by arguing that "If the customer isn't satisfied with the gift they got from Santa Claus, the gift did not come from Santa Claus."**
Less worried
By contrast, nobody was very worried about document retention. Dawn suggested that the children's letters must be fully digitized, and nobody else took up the subject. I think this lack of concern reflects our common experience that yes, of course document retention is important; but on the other hand documentation findings are generally the weakest kind of finding in any audit.
Similarly, Dawn and Jeremy both assured me that internal audits were done by impartial elves, where "no one audits their own toy line." And I think we have all experienced that even in organizations where the Quality Management System is informal or not very mature, it is generally possible to find people who can treat the process objectively, and who can therefore do reliable audits.
Unique observations
Then there were the unique observations, that pushed the discussion in an unexpected direction.
Jeremy argued that Santa Claus is thought of as a toymaker, but that the real focus of his design expertise is in logistics. In commenting on clause 8.3.2 (Design and development planning), he explains, "Santa has only 24 hours to deliver toys and other gifts all across the world. That means he's got to know the weather patterns. So his design and planning is less on toys and gifts and more on safety and delivery of the goods." Jeremy doesn't use this example, but I assume he would compare Santa (in this respect) to McDonald's, who didn't redesign the hamburger but revolutionized how it was delivered to the customer.
For her part, Dawn answered the question about children changing their minds by enunciating the rule, "Last Wish Wins." But that rule means that the audit plan has to spend a lot more time checking scrap and rework under clause 8.7 (Control of nonconforming outputs). As long as the only topic was the elves' workmanship, we could assume that the elves are magical and don't make mistakes; so overall scrap should be minimal. But if children can change their minds late in the game, there is sure to be scrap as earlier gifts are replaced with later ones. Thus does any answer in one part of the audit open up new trails in another part—and this, too, is a familiar experience to all of us.
Naturally I don't mean to suggest that any clause is unimportant. In the right (or wrong) circumstances, any clause can trip you up. But I found it interesting and reassuring that the feedback on this topic aligned so closely with my own sense about where the critical risks are in any ISO 9001 implementation. Again, even if the North Pole doesn't interest you much, your own organization does. And it is worth looking over where your own risks are.
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* Or at any rate I'll assume so for the purposes of this post!
** It's an interesting idea, to which I note only that, however this principle might work for Santa, it's not available for the rest of us.
