Disrupting ISO 9001:2015
There have been many articles in the past few weeks that provided information about disruption and its effect on the transition that many companies must make to ISO 9001:2015. This must be all wrapped up by September 15, 2018. A recent article in ASQ’s Quality Progress magazine[i] is adding fuel to the fire. Let’s take a look at the recently-released ISO 9004:2018. Continue reading
ISO 14001:2015 placed its position on risk management in the Annex (A.6.1.1): “Although risks and opportunities need to be determined and addressed, there is no requirement for formal risk management or a documented risk management process. It is up to the organization to select the method it will use to determine its risks and opportunities. The method may involve a simple qualitative process or a full quantitative assessment depending on the context in which the organization operates.” However, they neutralized the confusing “risks and opportunities” phrase by defining it (3.2.11) as: “potential adverse effects (threats) and potential beneficial effects (opportunities).” Continue reading
When AS/NZS 4360:2004 was morphed into ISO 31000:2009, we somehow lost the “six rules of risk management” to a popular investment phrase, ‘risks and opportunities’. In the financial world, risk is a potential for a loss. Opportunity is a potential for a gain. Continue reading
Fanfare Over New International Health and Safety Standard
On March 12, 2018, ISO published the World’s first International Standard dealing with health and safety at work. This document “offers a single, clear framework for all organizations wishing to improve OH&S performance.”[i] ISO 45001:2018 is also the first health and safety standard to deal with risks and opportunities instead of focusing only on hazard risk. Continue reading
Why are we still using risk management tools (e.g. ISO 31010) to focus only on the threats to an organization? I was pleasantly surprised when reading the description of the “Structured “What-if” Technique” where I found the following strength and limitations information: “SWIFT can be used to identify opportunities for improvement of processes and systems and generally can be used to identify actions that lead to and enhance their probabilities of success.” Continue reading