Implementation Team

Once a commitment is made to proceed with ISO 9000 implementation, a team and a team leader should be selected.  A 'management representative' must also be appointed (often the team leader).  The 'management representative' is the person in the company who, independent of other duties, has responsibility for implementation and management of the quality management system (QMS).  We'll talk more about the responsibilities of this position in a later post.

An implementation team is not required.  In fact, my first implementation was done without a team, the team only being formed when we were close to implementation and most of the work was done.  But there is a lot to do, and a lot of buy in required by the various departments in the organization.  If others are involved, the implementation will go much easier.  More hands on the work will shorten the the implementation cycle.

The members of the team should be decision makers.  Since the members will be involved with implementation of the processes developed, middle management members are a good choice.

Remember that team members have other full time work to do.  To keep the implementation on track, it is best to have regular meetings with meeting minutes, including action items, assignees and due dates.  Keep meetings to a defined amount of time.   Start and end the meetings on time. 

In keeping with ISO 9000's plan-do-check-act model, the first order of business of the team is the implementation plan.  There are many ways to implement ISO 9000, so there is no one best plan.  Whatever plan is adopted, document and monitor the plan at each meeting.  A gantt chart is a good choice for reporting progress of the plan, and many tools, such as Microsoft Project are available.

With a well formed committed team, a good plan, and the advice of an experienced consultant, a successful certification experience is likely.  Contact Rosehill Systems for guidance.