Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): ISO 9001:2008 & Economic Downturn Challenges

The seminar “Upgrade your ISO 9001:2000 to ISO 9001:2008 & Get Equipped to meet the Challenges of the Economic Downturn” was held on 5 Jan 2009, which was organized by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers – MIE Division and Hong Kong Society for Quality.

The Chairman of HKIE – MIE division, Ir. Dr. Winco Yung, gave an opening speech.

Then Dr. Albert Tsang, Chairman of HKSQ, gave an introduction speech of the seminar. He reminded that it was the forth revision of ISO 9001 standard.

The first speaker was Mr. Cliff Poon, Lead Auditor in SGS and his topic was “Identify the Differences between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008”.

He shared the history of ISO 9001 and described the main differences between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001: 2008. He mentioned the important summary of the changes were recorded in Annex B – Table B.1 in ISO 9001:2008.

The second speaker was Mr. Lotto Lai, Vice-chairman of HKSQ and Quality Manager in HKSTP, and presented “Practical Tips to PASS ISO 9001:2008 Audit”.

He shared the experience during ISO 9001:2008 audit. He identified the following points and solutions:
i) Outsourced Process (Solution: ISO 17025 clause 4.5 was employed)
ii) Document & Record Control (Solution: HOKLAS Policy 4.13.H was followed and Electronic Documents System was used.)
iii) Necessary Competence (Solution: ISO 17025 clause 5.2 – Demonstrated Skill)
iv) Infrastructure in IT and Personal Data (Solution: ISO 27001 A.10.6 Network security management and A.15.1.4 data protection and personal information were compiled.)
v) Monitoring Customer Perception (Solution: Design new questionnaire for data analysis and development Fan Club.)
Finally, he concluded most changes in ISO 9001:2008 create value for CUSTOMER.

The last speaker was Ir. Dr. Aaron Tong, ISO/TC-176 Observer, and he presented “Get Equipped to meet the Challenges of the Economic Downturn”.

He compared USA turndown in 1930 and economic crisis in 2008. In 1930, it was worse than now but the worst had not happened yet.
Aaron proposed that the company should be back to fundamental principles such as efficient and effectiveness, faster response to market and quality enhancement, etc. He raised two examples:
i) Michelangelo was asked how to make the sculpture of lion so real? He replied that it was simple to remove all things not like lion in the sculpture.
ii) Taiichi Ohno was asked how to manage Toyota so well? He replied that it was simple to remove MUDA (waste) at all.
Therefore, Lean Business is the trend of the solution to overcome the economic downturn. Another new term suggested was “Force Implement” (挾施). Lastly, he reminded that winter is coming. Are you ready?

The last session was panel discussion. We invited the representation of TUV (Mr. Berry Yeung), SGS (Mr. Cliff Poon), ISO/TC observer (Dr. Aaron Tong), HKIE-MIE (Dr. Victor Lo) and HKSQ (Mr. Lotto Lai) to share their opinions.