ISO Quality Services Ltd December 2016 Newsletter

16 Dec, 2016

Welcome to the December 2016 edition of the ISO Quality Services Ltd Newsletter

ISO Quality Services Ltd shortlisted for National Apprenticeship Service Awards Finals

We are pleased to announce that we have been announced as a finalist in the National Apprenticeship Awards, after winning at the West Midlands National Apprenticeship Awards 2016 regional ceremony in October.

We were named West Midlands Small Employer of the Year for the second time, after also winning the award in 2015. The company have now been shortlisted for the National award in this category, competing against companies across England. There are a total of 89 companies and 81 individuals that are through to the finals across all categories, from the 1000 initial entries.

Director, Jennifer and Marketing Executive, Hanna receiving the West Midlands Small Employer Award at the 2016 event.

The best employer category entries will also feature in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers list 2016, which will be announced at the ceremony on the 20th January 2017.

Sue Husband, Director of the National Apprenticeship Service said:

“The National Apprenticeship Awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of apprentices and the commitment of employers to apprenticeships. The regional finalists have shown their dedication to improving their own skills or those of their employees by pledging to support apprenticeships.”

“I congratulate every finalist on their apprenticeship achievements so far and wish them the very best of luck as the competition moves forward.”

ISO Quality Services Ltd started their apprenticeship scheme in 2012 and have now supported 6 apprentices. In the last year the business has taken on 3 new apprentices to join their growing team in St Johns, Worcester. They have taken on different roles in the company including Client Services, Finance, and Marketing.

Upon being named as National finalists, Jennifer Appleton, Operations Director said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have been have been put forward for the National Award for the first time. Our apprenticeship scheme is at the very heart of our company and we are excited to be able to continue to offer opportunities for young people within our team.”

If you would like to read more about the National Apprenticeship Awards, then you can visit their website here.

T’was one week before Christmas …

T’was one week before Christmas, and all through the factory
All of the Elves were stirring, to make toys all through the day and night.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

But how does Santa complete this large scale mission year on year? It’s a mammoth task that takes place up in the North Pole, with some serious elf-power behind it. Projects on a big scale have to be well manned, well managed and have proven processes in place to succeed. So what’s the secret to Santa’s success? How does he ensure Quality?

• Management System – Santa needs some way of storing and sorting through thousands of letters from Children around the world. How else will he remember who has been naughty or nice?
• Training – Santa needs motivated and well trained elves to ensure everything runs smoothly. The elves need an evolving and up to date training schedule with the ability to manage training records. Happy elves will work more productively, inspire others and help define your processes for you.
• Managing Non-Conformances – Santa can’t have defects! We all know elves are magical – but how do they make sure that all toys are manufactured to the highest standard, and how do they monitor this? A non-conformance is when something within the business doesn’t go according to plan, which may result in a customer complaint or a delay in the normal process. By recording when something doesn’t go according to plan, identifying trends and finding the route cause, helps the elves to put fixes in place and processes to ensure that little Johnny (on the nice list) gets his train set on time for Christmas.
• Risk Management – Risk Management is all about monitoring and categorising risk to minimise their potential impact. The elves have produced their very own Risk Management Register. They know the risks to quality and success and once they understand them, they can work hard to reduce them – wherever they come from faster than you can say ‘ho, ho, ho’!
• Continuous improvement – In order to deal with a growing population, more technological gifts and changes in the marketplace, Santa and the elves need to find ways to improve on their processes year on year. Making sure Santa reviews the workshop’s quality policy, quality objectives and preventive actions as part of his management review, he can put new pro-active plans in place as he has all the information to his big red hand!

REMEMBER: PDCA!

Plan: Set the objectives of the system and processes to deliver your results (“What to do” and “how to do it”)
Do: Implement and control what you planned
Check: Monitor and measure processes and results against your quality policies, quality objectives and report your results
Act: Take actions to improve the performance of your processes (continuous improvement)

As you can see there are lots of lessons to be learned from Santa and his workshop. Santa can’t be late, can’t have defect and he can’t have dissatisfied customers (they might just stop believing in him!)

Sources: Quality Digest (2011) ISO Requirements