Ep 78 - Certifying the Certifier, Journaling AISC through ISO certification

This is a fun episode where we go through the certifying process with a certifying company.  Quality Management Company, LLC is a company the conducts steel fabricator and erector quality management system audits for AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction).  This case study was authored by Roberta Marstellar and Sheila Alegria, although we are not sure which one did the journaling.  Quality Management Company, LLC realized that they were not doing themselves the very thing they were asking their customers to do.  This case study is a series of journal entries as one of these ladies was hired on, the realization of terrible process, the notion of achieving ISO 9001 certification, and then the journey to achieve that certification.  On the first day on the job, she found, among other things, there were rising complaints against QMC.  On the second day, the manager of administration turned in her notice, with nothing written down about how to do her job.  About a week in, she overhears an employee tell a client, “I’ll get to it when I get to it.”  At about 4 months, she begins to realize QMC introduced a new program to 500 AISC certified building fabricators and then basically turned their backs.  The customers had about a year left and only 75 had adopted early.  It’s a this point she starts investigating ISO 9001 for the company itself.  But, as the journaling goes on, she quickly learns that is difficult to do while still helping your clients become and stay certified or become certified to the new version.  Eventually, about 3 years from her first day, Quality Management Company, LLC became ISO 9001:2000 certified.  The process does not feel easy when you’re on your own, but it can be with the help of someone who is familiar with it. 



Excerpt from Case Study



April 11, 2006:  A step in the right direction



THE ISO books have arrived!  I just opened up the Q9001-2000 Quality Management Systems-Requirements.  It is written in English, but it really seems like a foreign language to me.  “Product Realization”—what is that?  Oh, this is going to take some getting used to…  



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