We've been in this situation many times where we find ourselves competing against pre-written document toolkits.
This month we decided to outline some of the benefits and pitfalls of toolkits vs using consultants.
The benefits/pitfalls include:
As consultants, we do 95% of the work involved in building the system v the client sifting through a mass of policies, procedures, forms etc
We do not over-write systems i.e. we don’t make them more complex for what the business needs, over-written systems are an administrative nightmare
Toolkits are fine for the odd policy or procedure when requested, but it’s difficult for a client to build a working certifiable system from a raft of documents many of them irrelevant to their particular business
Toolkits are designed to cover the needs of any size/type of business, therefore a lot of work is needed to make them correctly fit a particular business
Toolkits always result in an overwritten, never used system that a certification auditor will find holes in again and again
Operating a quality ‘system’ from a toolkit is a completely different animal to trying to pass an external audit, for certification. An auditor will be looking to assess a ‘system’ of interrelated and interdependent processes, that they are not overly complex and not insufficient for the business. A toolkit is a set of independent procedures, that very rarely come together to form a complete system.
The new ISO 9001:2015 standard does not include a single mandatory requirement for a ‘procedure’ or a ‘quality manual’, and it requires only one single policy statement. Therefore I often wonder how toolkits offering procedures, policies and forms are still being advertised. It’s very rare these days for a certification auditor to request to see a documented procedure.
To sum up, there is no comparison between a consultant designing a working quality system and going through the process of external certification to changing the header on a box of pre-written, generalised and unnecessary procedures and policies.
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